


That Which Belongs to the Sea

by creeshtar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: :3c, Alchemy, Alternate Universe, Complete, Little Mermaid AU, M/M, Magic, Romance, With A Twist, attempted drownings, side adashi, some violence, there's a difference!, yeah that pretty much sums it up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-09-30 19:51:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 54,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17230160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creeshtar/pseuds/creeshtar
Summary: Lance is the youngest prince of a magnificent underwater kingdom, in possession of a rare gift of long-forgotten mermaid magic. He couldn't care less about any of that though. Lance's passion lies above the surface of the water, where there just happens to be a handsome and charming human prince.orA Little Mermaid AU... with a twist.





	1. The Fathoms Below

**Author's Note:**

> First and foremost, this is a birthday gift for the lovely Angela (@stellalights)! Happy birthday darling!
> 
> Secondly, welcome to my new project that will carry us all into the new year. I hope you enjoy it. Please keep in mind that this does not follow the Disney movie exactly, but it does follow the general flow of it and has quite a few references that I hope you all find delight in.

The morning dawned gray and overcast, and waters choppy and irritable, as though the waves themselves protested the early hour. Seagulls shrieked overhead, ducking in and out of the salty mist that heralded the coming of the sun. To some it might seem like a dreary and less than ideal time to be at sea.

 

To Keith, it was nothing short of perfect.

 

He leaned over the railing eagerly, breathing in the cool ocean air as it whipped past him. The slate gray waters did little to curb his enthusiasm, as it might for others. Keith loved the ocean as he did nothing else, and he loved it’s every mood. Sometimes it was lively, while others it was mischievous (more often than not, it was both at once). Sometimes it was dark as night, in the throes of a terrible storm that could drown even the most steadfast of sailors. It demanded respect, and Keith loved that too.

 

Most of all Keith loved the sheer mystery of the sea. Humans such as himself could only delve so far into those deep blue waters, and the ocean seem to stretch as far as the sky itself (as a child, Keith had often imagined that the sky and the sea were one and the same; he still wondered if there was a place the two met, to this day). Who knew what strange stories the dark depths held. Most sailors regarded the unknown with deep-seated superstition and fear. Keith peered eagerly over the side of the ship, heart pounding with nothing short of excitement.

 

From behind, someone clapped him on the back, perhaps a little too hard, as Keith pitched forward a bit farther than he would’ve liked. He whipped around, scowling, to find Shiro grinning as though he hadn’t nearly pushed him overboard.

 

“You really shouldn’t lean so far over the edge,” Shiro noted airily. “You could fall right over.”

 

“I won’t as long as you don’t push me,” Keith bit back. If Shiro noticed that his grip on the railing was a bit tighter than before, he didn’t say anything.

 

Shiro laughed. “I didn’t push you, you just weren’t paying attention.”

 

Keith rolled his eyes and turned them back to the ocean ahead. He thought he could see a pod of dolphins hopping playfully above the waves in the distance. It might’ve been a trick of the fog, but he smiled all the same.

 

“Looking for mermaids?”

 

Keith frowned again. “Are you ever going to let that go?!”

 

“Oh, come on, am I not allowed to tease my baby brother anymore?”

 

“Not on my birthday, that’s illegal,” Keith huffed.

 

Shiro laughed loudly then, leaning against the railing near Keith. They both gazed into the waves below, as though looking for those alluring creatures of myth. It had been almost ten years since Keith had sprinted into the palace, screaming that he’d seen a mermaid while playing in the shallows. Even now he had trouble believing that the sweetly smiling face set with ocean-blue eyes had been a vivid figment of his imagination, but there had been no proof, and Keith had never seen that face again.

 

“Maybe if you fall in you’ll find mermaids,” Shiro idly commented.

 

Keith shoved him. “Shut up! I know mermaids aren’t real! And I’m not going to fall in.”

 

“Careful there,” Shiro warned, grin still tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You’ll jinx yourself.”

 

Keith scoffed. He and Shiro both knew better. They’d both been sailing as long as they could walk; there was no way Keith was going overboard. And strange sightings of stranger boys with shining blue tails aside, mermaids were definitely, assuredly, and without a doubt not real.

 

Or so Keith told himself as he looked intently at the choppy waters.

 

~*~

 

Far beneath the roiling waves, where the pale morning light glimmered brightly, ocean-blue eyes glanced up towards the surface, as if knowing that someone was looking for evidence that such eyes existed below the water. They didn’t linger long however. There were important things to be done, after all.

 

“Lance, I’m not so sure this is a good idea,” Hunk whispered, for all that there was no one around save for himself and the young mer-prince.

 

Lance grinned as they peeked over the top over a large outcropping of rock, towards a long eroded shipwreck.

 

“Come on, Hunk, where’s your sense of adventure?” he asked his lifelong companion.

 

“At home, where we should be!” Hunk protested. “Do you know how much trouble we’d be in if anyone found out we were here? Shipwrecks are forbidden!”

 

Lance blew a stream of bubbles. “I’m aware. Anyways, we wouldn’t get in any more trouble than we have all the other times we’ve been caught.”

 

With a sharp swish of his sleek blue tail, Lance hoisted himself over the rock and darted towards the shipwreck. Reluctantly, Hunk propelled himself after Lance, his strong golden tail flipping anxiously behind him. In the gloomy waters around the sunken ship, Hunk was acutely aware how bright their tails looked.

 

“Yeah, see that’s the thing, we always get caught when we do this--”

 

“No, no, there was that one time, with that one ship… Half of it fell into the trench, remember?”

 

“Oh, yeah, sure, cause I’d take near-death over a firm scolding any day,” Hunk scoffed.

 

“Well maybe if someone didn’t go running his mouth any time someone asked, we wouldn’t get in nearly as much trouble!” Lance retorted as they neared the ship.

 

Hunk grimaced, both at the accusation and because of the looming shadow of the ship. “You know I don’t like lying…”

 

“I know, buddy,” Lance said gently, as he peered through a porthole. “It’s one of your best qualities. It just doesn’t pair well with… this.”

 

Hunk sighed as Lance ventured into the ship. It had been fun at first, really, exploring the unknown. For all that Hunk had been genuinely scared of anything human related all those years ago, Lance had managed to drag him along when he first got it in his head to explore the forbidden shipwrecks. Now it wasn’t so much fear (although the sunken ships still gave him major heebie-jeebies), as much as it was concern that they would get in trouble. Again. They were forbidden, after all.

 

Initially, being the youngest prince in this sea meant that Lance always had a certain sort of flippancy when it came to rules. He went where he pleased, when he pleased. Even Hunk couldn’t stop him, even though he’d likely been placed at Lance’s side to do just that. Forbidden, to Lance, meant something to be intently explored for the simple sake of youthful rebellion. Hunk had been dragged along, fear and all.

 

From the first shipwreck, however, something else had sparked within Lance, something just as intense as his desire to find trouble. Hunk had never known exactly what it was that had ignited Lance’s curiosity regarding humans, for initially Lance had passed over human objects found in shipwrecks unless they were especially shiny. Then one day he’d insisted on picking up the most random of objects with the intention of learning about them and humans, and, well…

 

The waters inside the shipwreck were still and ominous. Hunk shivered. Lance beamed. He’d been thinking he’d searched all the shipwrecks within swimming distance, yet here was a ship that was totally new to him! He could hardly contain his excitement as he began to sift through the debris that littered the floors. Hunk, meanwhile, glanced around, looking for dangers lurking in the shadows.

 

“Hunk, will you chill out? Nothing here but barnacles and maybe some fish hiding from sharks,” Lance called over his shoulder as he grabbed a handful of shiny coins and stuffed them in his bag.

 

Hunk sighed, his tensed shoulders relaxing only marginally. “I know, I know, I just--wait, you don’t think there are sharks in this area, do you?!”

 

“No way, this wreck is too old,” Lance assured him. “I think.”

 

With a giggle, Lance rounded a corner out of Hunk’s sight, leaving the anxious merman to hurry after with a high-pitched protest. There was very little in the shipwreck that Lance hadn’t found in others, so the excursion quickly became boring for him. Even Hunk had to stifle a yawn after a while.

 

Hunk nearly launched himself through the ceiling of the room they were in when Lance squealed suddenly.

 

“Hunk, look at this!” Lance insisted, holding out the strangest object he’d ever found.

 

Hunk obliged, unamused. “Wow, a thing.”

 

If Lance noticed the sarcasm, he didn’t comment on it. He turned them item over in his hands a few times, eyes wide with fascination. It wasn’t at all colorful, like some human objects were, but it was well polished. Wide at one end, narrow at the other, and curved twice along its length. Lance had no idea what it could possibly be. It sent a thrill of excitement coursing through him all the way down to his tail fins.

 

“We’ll have to visit Pidge,” Lance announced as he placed the item into his bag.

 

“I was afraid you’d say that,” Hunk groaned. “As if exploring forbidden shipwrecks wasn’t enough.”

 

“No one’s found out we visit Pidge though,” Lance pointed out as they continued meandering through the ship.

 

“Yeah, cause no one suspects enough to ask me,” Hunk grumbled.

 

“And hopefully, no one will!”

 

They continued to banter as Lance dug through the wreckage, appraising certain familiar items and keeping a keen eye out for new ones. The room they drifted in boasted an entire wall made of glass, which allowed light to stream in plentifully. This was only a minor comfort to Hunk, perpetually worried as he was. Even so, his eyes were glued to Lance, whose eyes were engaged in a search for the unknown.

 

Neither of them noticed the massive shadow that passed by just outside.

 

“Anyways, I thought you were cool with Pidge,” Lance noted as he held up what looked like a badly tarnished, miniature trident.

 

“I am,” Hunk insisted. “But they’re still--you know--human.”

 

Finally, Lance turned to Hunk, his eyes gently glimmering.

 

“Hunk, we’ve known them for years. Don’t you think if they were going to do something to us, they’d have done it by now?”

 

“I guess…”

 

“If I thought Pidge was anything less than trustworthy, there’s no way I’d bring you anywhere near them, I promise,” Lance continued, placing a calm hand on Hunk’s shoulder.

 

Hunk let out a breath, the bubbles tickling his cheeks. Sometimes it was infuriating, how Lance always seemed to know just what to say to keep Hunk calm. It was perhaps the only reason Hunk continued to allow himself to be dragged along on all these misadventures.

 

“Alright, alright,” Hunk relented, his shoulders slumping. “But you’re so busy with weird human things, one of us has to be on the lookout for danger, right?”

 

Lance shrugged. “I guess, but I don’t want you keeling over from stress, you know?”

 

When Hunk said nothing, Lance grinned wide, holding up his latest find. “Now, what do you suppose this is?!”

 

This time, Hunk regarded the object more seriously. “It looks like a tiny trident.”

 

“That’s what I was thinking!”

 

“Can humans do magic?”

 

“Pidge never said so.”

 

“Pidge doesn’t say a lot of things.”

 

“Tell me about it--”

 

The two young mermen halted abruptly as a large shadow passed over them. They whipped around, but by the time they did, whatever had cast the shadow was long gone. Hunk shivered, his nerves all on alert once more. Lance had said that there probably weren’t sharks lingering around this ship wreck. Probably.

 

Lance laughed nervously. “You suppose this place is haunted?”

 

“Lance!”

 

“I’m just kidding!” Lance cackled, a little less tremulous this time. “Come on, the sooner we go see Pidge the better, and this time we’ve got two new things!”

 

“For once I completely agree,” Hunk huffed.

 

They swam a bit more directly through the ship, towards the gaping hole in the side through which they’d entered. Hunk was still on edge about that shadow, large as it was.

 

“Do you suppose that maybe one shark decided to chill around here? You know, in case there was something all the other sharks missed?” Hunk said, glancing around as they swam out into open water again.

 

“Dude, sharks only follow ships in the first place because of all the junk that humans throw overboard that they can eat. As far as shipwrecks go, they don’t hang around for long once they realize there’s nothing left to eat,” Lance explained, twirling to face Hunk.

 

“I know, I know, you’ve told me before, and I know, but--”

 

Hunk stopped abruptly, eyes widening to the size of sand dollars. Lance made a face and put his hands on his hips. Hunk started pointing at something behind him, lips moving wordlessly, and Lance’s attempt at remaining cool as a clam started to fray. Hunk began waving at him frantically. He’d completely given up on trying to say anything.

 

“If I turn around and there’s not a shark ready to take a bite out of my tail…”

 

Lance turned around.

 

There was in fact a very large, very intimidating great white shark just a few meters behind him.

 

It did in fact look ready to take a bite out of his tail.

 

Lance let out an undignified squeak just as Hunk grabbed him and pulled him sharply away, just as the shark opened its massive maw. Hunk and Lance were both screaming as the shark began to pursue them with frightening speed. No doubt their tails looked especially appetizing to it.

 

“What do we do, what do we do, what do we do--!” Hunk practically cried as they rounded the end of the shipwreck.

 

“Double back under it!” Lance instructed.

 

They neatly flipped through the water, the hairpin turn too fine for the shark to immediately follow. It was a faster swimmer by far, but it didn’t have the precision that most merfolk had. That wouldn’t give them enough time to get away though, and they both knew it.

 

“We can duck back into the ship!” Lance shouted.

 

“What?!”

 

“It’s too big, it can’t get in there!”

 

“No way, nuh-uh, absolutely--”

 

The shark’s jaw snapped dangerously close behind them.

 

“Into the ship it is!” Hunk readily agreed.

 

They ducked into the ship, only for the shark to crash into the rotted wood behind them. The shark was not to be deterred. It followed them along half the length of the ship, chomping through any and all obstacles they tried to throw in its way. 

 

“I don’t think coming back in here was such a great idea!” Hunk screamed.

 

“Tell me something I don’t know!” Lance shouted back as he heaved a large barrel into the shark’s waiting jaws.

 

They sped up to one of the upper decks. The shark was still in hot pursuit.

 

“There!”

 

Hunk pointed to a small hole in the side of the ship, too small by far for the shark. Lance grabbed him by the arm to push him ahead; they didn’t have to time to bicker over who should escape first. The shark was almost upon him when Lance shoved himself through. Hunk yanked him by the arm, the harsh breaks in the wood digging into Lance’s sides. The shark slammed into the wall just as Lance’s tail fins cleared the hole.

 

They breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief as the shark tried to muscle it’s way through the hole.

 

“Ha,” Lance laughed weakly. Then, “Ha! Take that you big, overgrown--!”

 

If Hunk hadn’t been vigilant enough to pull Lance away, the young princling would’ve certainly become shark food that day. Lance made a mental note to give Hunk a break sooner rather than later. For the moment, however…

 

The chase quickly turned into the ocean’s worst game of ring around the shipwreck. The shark swam steadily closer despite Hunk and Lance swimming at top speed. They weren’t going to last at this rate, Lance knew.

 

The were nearing the aft of the ship when Lance spied something. He wordlessly pointed it out to Hunk (he was far to breathless to even scream at this point), and Hunk gave him a knowing nod. 

 

Hunk split off from Lance, and the shark, drawn to the sudden movement, made to follow Hunk. Steeling himself, Lance flipped around and punched the shark right in the gills to get its attention. It worked, for better or worse Lance couldn’t say as he swam in tight circles to keep his tail out of the shark’s hungry mouth.

 

“Lance!”

 

Lance chanced a glance up where Hunk was ready and waiting by a large coil of heavy iron chains. He gave him a thumbs up, and shoved the shark upwards as hard as he could to get himself a decent head start along the side of the ship. The shark was on him again in an instant, still hungry and now incredibly angry. Above Lance, Hunk gave a mighty heave against the iron coil.

It would be a close thing for Lance, but at this pace it was a sure thing that the shark would be caught up in the chains.

 

“Lance, look out!”

 

Hunk directed his attention to an anchor, dragged over the side of the wrecked ship by the chains and falling far faster. Lance whipped his tail as hard as he could; it would have to be a straight shot under it. Lance dove down, scraping the ocean floor and kicking up a cloud of sand. He shot back up as quickly as he’d gone down, twirling around to see if their plan had worked. Hunk swam up beside him only a second later.

 

The sand settled. The shark was hopelessly tangled in a coil of iron and trapped under the anchor for good measure.

 

Lance whooped loudly as Hunk dragged him away.

 

“We did it!” Lance cheered.

 

“Yes, we did it, now let’s go see Pidge so we can go home!” Hunk insisted as they swam away from the struggling shark.

 

“Alright, alright, chill out before you turn into coral and keel over.”

 

It was always hit or miss as to whether Pidge would be in the tide pools where they normally found them. They’d once tried to teach the mermen human methods of time keeping so that they didn’t have to guess all the time, but it was never easy to keep track of underwater. Lucky for them, Pidge was puttering around in the tide pools when they poked their heads above the surface.

 

“Hey! Pidge!” Lance shouted eagerly, waving his hand to get Pidge’s attention. 

 

Beside him, Hunk was still only just peeking above the waves, looking at Lance in a way that suggested he wished the young prince would be a little less conspicuous. Lance paid him no heed.

 

Pidge peered up through their over-large glasses (a rather odd contraption they wore on their face, which apparently was supposed to help them see better) and waved them over. Lance swam into shallower waters, Hunk following close behind.

 

“Hey guys, been a while,” Pidge greeted as they settled atop a large rock that the mermen could easily hide behind should any other humans pass by. “What do you have today?”

 

Lance grinned eagerly.

 

“Okay, first, we found more of those coins for you--”

 

“Nice!” Pidge exclaimed, holding out their hands for the handful of salt-crusted coins that Lance had dug up.

 

Then, Lance pulled out the strange, curvy object for Pidge to appraise. They snorted when they looked at it.

 

“It’s a musical instrument, right?” Lance guessed, noticing for the first time that it was hollow on the inside. 

 

Pidge laughed openly at that, nearly falling off the rock they were perched on.

 

“No! It’s a smoking pipe!” they wheezed.

 

“A what now?” Hunk asked as he slowly rose a little higher out of the water.

 

Lance rolled his eyes. He was certain that Pidge was pulling his tail (again). It looked like an instrument, after all, if only very small. He took a deep breath as he brought the narrow end of the pipe to his lips, and blew very hard before Pidge could stop him.

 

Nothing but seaweed and foam issued from the other end, the pipe so horribly clogged that Lance’s breath caught in his throat and sent him into a horrible coughing fit. Hunk fussed; Pidge laughed uproariously once more, absolutely beside themself. Lance decided that perhaps it wasn’t an instrument.

 

“I told you!” Pidge said once they’d managed to stop laughing. “It’s a smoking pipe! You put some leaves in the wide end and then set them on fire--”

 

“Fire? What’s that?” Lance interrupted.

 

“It’s, uh,” Pidge faltered, trying to find the right words. “It’s super hot, and super bright, and it burns things--”

 

“Burns?”

 

“Yeah, it--burning is… You know what, remind me to show you next time we see each other,” they sighed, giving up on explaining.

 

  
“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind,” Lance said as he put the pipe back in his bag and brought out the next item.

 

“Pidge! You never told us humans can do magic!” Hunk accused.

 

Pidge choked on their laughter. “That’s because we can’t.”

 

“Then how do you explain this mini trident?” Lance insisted, waving the tarnished object around.

 

“It’s called a fork,” Pidge said, taking it and twirling it between their fingers. “We use it to eat things. This one was a really nice one, for fancy dinners and the like…”

 

Lance paused at that. The phrase “fancy dinner” stirred something in the back of his head.

 

“Lance,” Hunk started in a horrified tone. “The dinner…”

 

“The state dinner, oh no, the state dinner! With the diplomats!” Lance shrieked, his voice going up an octave with every word. “My family is going to kill me!”

 

“You think that’s bad, imagine what they’re going to do to me for not making sure you were there!” Hunk prodded.

 

Lance stuffed the fork back into his bag.

 

“Thanks Pidge, wish we could stay and chat but, you know, important merfolk business and all! Later!”

 

The mermen were gone before Pidge could even bid them a proper goodbye. They bickered with each other the entire way back to the palace, both insistent that the other should’ve remembered, or that they themselves had simply remembered wrong, and overall that they did not deserve the end they were sure to meet. They swam as fast as their fins would take them, all the while unaware that lurking in the shadows, a pair of eyes watched with keen interest.

 

“Very impolite, to be so late to a state dinner,” a voice drawled from a dark cove. The only source of light was a large bubble, in which the image of a certain young mer-prince gleamed brightly. “How very lucky then, that these diplomats are your friends and allies, and are inclined to forgive such a grievous insult.”

 

The voice scoffed. “How juvenile. Were it me, I should wonder if such a person took me seriously at all. But these mer-folk are more readily disposed to trust friendship and kindness rather than any real skill or importance.”

 

A slender tentacle stretched out of the shadows, followed shortly by several more as the devious watcher peered more closely at the young mer-prince. A wicked smile was reflected on the surface of the bubble.

 

“And that,” the watcher mused. “Shall be their undoing.”

 

~*~

 

When Lance and Hunk finally returned to the palace, they had hoped, perhaps a little foolishly, that they could sneak in unnoticed. The eldest princess, however, was all too familiar with her baby brother’s antics, and was waiting rather impatiently for them when they crept back into Lance’s rooms.

 

“Lance,” she greeted in such a tone that seemed to chill the water around them.

 

Lance swallowed hard. “Hey, Veronica.”

 

“Hunk, if you please, I’d like a moment to speak with my brother,” Veronica ordered politely. “Alone.”

 

Hunk wasted no time in bowing out of the room, sparing Lance a pitying glance as he closed the door. Veronica’s steely blue tail swished sharply through the water. Lance, meanwhile, worked to still the nervous twitching of his tail. She couldn’t do anything but scold him, he knew. It was little comfort all the same.

 

“Listen, I know I messed up--”

 

“I don’t want to hear it, Lance!” Veronica snapped. “How could you be late to such an important event? What in the world could possibly be more important?!”

 

“Nothing! I just… forgot?” Lance offered lamely.

 

“You forgot,” Veronica repeated. She eyed him critically, as though she could pull the truth out of him with her gaze alone. Lance wasn’t so sure she couldn’t. “You were exploring shipwrecks again, weren’t you?”

 

Lance, to his credit, tried his very best to feign innocence. “What? No, I would--Veronica you know that’s forbidden, and--anyways I haven’t done that in ages, why would you--”

 

Veronica glared.

 

“Okay, fine, I found a shipwreck I hadn’t explored yet and thought I’d check it out, and then we got a little sidetracked because there was a shark! And, man, it must’ve been starving because it was really out to get us--”

 

“Of course,” Veronica huffed, deaf to the fiasco with the shark. “Of course, it’s more human stuff! Do you not get why contact with humans and anything related to them is forbidden?!”

 

“They’re not as dangerous as we think they are!” Lance protested.

 

“Oh and I suppose you know all about them?”

 

“I would, if learning about them wasn’t such a pain!”

 

“It’s a pain because humans have maimed mer-folk like us!” Veronica shouted. “Or have you forgotten?!”

 

“That hasn’t happened to anyone in our kingdom for ages--”

 

“And what of the neighboring kingdoms? You know, the ones that are visiting? The ones that are attending the state dinner that is in progress at this very moment? What do you suppose they would think about all this?” Veronica demanded.

 

“I could probably convince them--”

 

“Enough, Lance!” Veronica snarled. “It’s one thing to have a harmless hobby--”

 

“This is a harmless hobby--!”

 

“But this is interfering too much with your duties as a prince!”

 

“What duties?! I’m the youngest prince, if you don’t count Nadia and Sylvio! Why do you guys even need me?!”

 

Veronica massaged her temples. “We’ve been over this before, Lance. You have a natural talent for diplomacy, to the point where some people even say--”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know, silvertongue and all that, old mermaid magic and junk. That’s not even real,” Lance dismissed with a wave of his hand.

 

“That’s not the point,” Veronica insisted. “The point is, you have a responsibility to this kingdom. This one, here, underwater. You know, your home?”

 

Lance scowled. He hated it when she played that card.

 

“I know that,” he muttered, eyes averted.

 

“Do you? Cause this isn’t the first time this has happened!”

 

“I know that!”

 

“Then act like it, Lance,” Veronica hissed. “One of these days you’re going to brush off the wrong people, and then it’s going to become the whole kingdom’s problem!”

 

Lance did not deign to reply.

 

Veronica composed herself again. “The dinner is still in progress. We’ve told them you weren’t feeling well, but you’re still expected to make an appearance. Don’t be too long.”

 

And with a flip of her radiant tail, she was gone.

 

Lance allowed himself only a moment for self-pity before he began to get ready to make an appearance. This was by no means anything new to Lance. Despite being the youngest prince, there were a great many expectations placed upon him, all because everyone had it in their heads that he possessed a rare, supposedly lost mer-folk magic. Lance had preened under the attention the supposed magic gave him at first, but before too long he began to chafe under the scrutiny. He couldn’t go anywhere without someone talking of silvertongue magic, but no one could explain what it was or how it worked, so Lance could never improve or control it. Eventually, Lance decided that it simply wasn’t real.

 

And to be valued for something that wasn’t even real… Suffice to say, Lance wasn’t happy with it.

 

Hunk peeked into his room just as Lance was getting ready to leave.

 

“Hey,” he greeted gently. “How’d it go?”

 

Lance shrugged. “Same as every other time. Did she interrogate you herself or have someone else do it?”

 

“She must be really focused on the dinner because no one’s asked me a thing, thank goodness,” Hunk sighed.

 

“For now,” Lance warned. “Anyways, they still want me to be there, late or not. Wish me luck.”

 

“You got this, bud,” Hunk assured him with a firm pat on the shoulder.

 

“Thanks, man.”

 

Once again Lance allowed himself to hope that he could sneak in unnoticed. A foolish hope, to be sure. He was still a prince, younger or not. The guests had been chattering animatedly when the heralds announced Lance’s arrival, and he had to work to keep himself from shrinking away from all the eyes now on him. Like the rush of a wayward current through the water, intense whispering filled the hall as Lance made his way to his seat.

 

A familiar face awaited him at the table.

 

“You certainly know how to make an entrance, don’t you?” a silver haired mermaid whispered as he took his seat. “Why were you really late?”

 

Around them, conversation resumed, and Lance replied in a low voice, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

 

Then, in a normal voice, “How have you been, Princess Allura?”

 

Allura smiled wryly. It was hard to get anything past her, but sometimes social courtesies provided a nice shield to hide behind. Lance was certain that she would find him when the dinner was well and done and prod him for the real reason he’d been so egregiously late. For now, however, being held to a certain decorum allowed Lance to keep all probing questions at arm’s length.

 

Several more delegates did indeed inquire after Lance’s health throughout the remainder of the dinner. All Lance had to offer was some bland reassurance and gently nudge the conversation in a different direction, and his late arrival was all but forgotten.

 

The rest of the dinner went swimmingly, albeit a little too long for Lance’s tastes. Most people were still talking well after desserts had been cleared away, and Lance was struggling to keep his tail from twitching under the table. When his parents finally rose to signal the blessed end of the dinner, Lance had to physically restrain himself from swimming out of the hall as fast as his fins would take him. Eventually he found an opening to leave, and gracefully slipped away without anyone being the wiser.

 

Save for one mermaid, that was.

 

~*~

 

Princess Allura was a lifelong friend of the youngest prince’s, and as such knew better than to believe that Lance would ever make an appearance at any sort of function if he was truly feeling unwell. Something had kept him, and Allura wanted to know what. It did not escape her notice when Lance, who normally revelled in social situations, snuck out the first opportunity he got. Allura, without a second thought, followed him as quickly as discretion allowed.

 

Were Lance truly unwell, Allura knew he would go straight to his rooms. When she spotted him just outside the dining hall, however, he swam in the exact opposite direction. Allura followed discreetly. Once or twice Lance glanced over his shoulder (which only served to increase Allura’s suspicions), and Allura had to duck behind some large pillar or other to avoid being caught. Wherever Lance was going, it was clear he didn’t want to be followed. Allura wanted to know all the more what he was hiding because of it.

 

Curiosity and suspicion rose tenfold when Allura watched Lance meet up with Hunk, both of them glancing around for any bystanders that might see them. Once they were certain they were clear, they swam out of the palace. Allura followed discreetly behind. Several times she almost lost them, but their vibrant tails were hard to miss, even from a distance.

 

The palace was well out of sight when Lance and Hunk stopped at an unremarkable outcropping of rock. Allura frowned, perplexed.

 

“What in the seven seas are they up to?” she muttered.

 

The two young mermen had ducked down where the seaweed grew tall and thick. Allura darted through the water and weeds to find them again, and caught a flash of color disappearing into a cove she hadn’t noticed before. She approached slowly, in case they came right back out. They did not. Allura crept towards the entrance, and peered inside.

 

When she saw what lied within, Allura had to stifle a gasp.

 

The grotto that Lance and Hunk had ducked into was far larger than anyone might’ve guessed from the outside, had they known it existed at all. A small opening at the top of the outcropping allowed light to filter in and cast a soft glow on what was perhaps the most shocking feature of the grotto: a veritable collection of human (human!) items.

 

Towards the back of the grotto, Lance was digging around in a bag that Allura hadn’t noticed him carrying before. From it he took two more items of human origin, and placed them almost reverently wherever there was space. He sighed deeply. Hunk drifted towards him and placed a comforting hand on Lance’s shoulder.

 

“I don’t get what the big deal is,” Allura heard Lance grumble.

 

“Well, you are a prince,” Hunk replied.

 

Lance shrugged away from Hunk. “A younger prince.”

 

“Still a prince.”

 

“For all the good it does me.”

 

“It’s only because they think--”

 

“I know what they think,” Lance snapped, crossing his arms. “They’re wrong.”

 

“Even if they are, there’s still the fact that you do have a way with words,” Hunk offered.

 

“Except when it comes to humans, apparently,” Lance sighed.

 

“People are just scared. I know I am.”

 

Lance was full on pouting by then. “If they would just listen, they’d know there might not be anything to be scared of at all!”

 

“Dude, we’re talking about generations of misunderstanding, and mer-people getting caught on fish hooks and tangled up in nets… You have to admit, humans are pretty careless,” Hunk said in a soothing tone.

 

“I know,” Lance sighed. “But they’re also amazing! I mean, look at all this stuff! It’s just incredible, and this is just the surface of all the things they’ve created! I want to see it all, Hunk! I want to see people dance and run, I want to know what fire is, I want to know what humans have to write about that they write so many books--”

 

Lance stopped abruptly, looking as though he’d swallowed a stone. Allura froze where she was lingering in the entrance of the grotto. Their eyes were locked.

 

Lance shrieked and launched himself backwards into the wall of the grotto, causing several items to fall and hit him right on top of his head. Hunk, who hadn’t yet spotted Allura, was whipping his head around, wondering aloud what in the world was happening. Slowly, Allura emerged from the shadows. Hunk squeaked in surprise, freezing where he floated.

 

“Allura! Hey! What are… you doing here?” Lance stammered as he hurriedly replaced the fallen objects.

 

“I was curious as to why you were really late, but you left before I could ask you, so I followed,” Allura explained. “Now I see.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Allura eyed all the curious items. “I thought you’d grown out of that rebellious phase of yours.”

 

“I have!” Lance protested. “This is… different.”

 

“I see.”

 

Allura perused the many odd curios that Lance had collected. Some of them Allura could guess what they might be, other things were simply too peculiar for her to guess any purpose. Lance and Hunk watched her anxiously.

 

“What is this, then?” she finally asked.

 

Lance gestured awkwardly. “It’s… my collection?”

 

“Your collection,” Allura repeated. “Of human items.”

 

Allura pressed her lips tightly together.

 

“Listen, I know it seems a little weird--” Lance began.

 

“Weird? Lance this is--I don’t even know where to start! Do you even know what humans do?!”

 

“I’m well aware, but I think if we could actually talk to them--”

 

“Talk to them?! As if they wouldn’t snatch you out of the ocean the first chance they got?!” Allura screeched.

 

Lance’s expression turned sour. “I knew you wouldn’t understand, why’d you have to follow us?!”

 

“I--” Allura faltered, recoiling.

 

Lance was her dearest friend. But humans were a much bigger problem for her kingdom, which was settled in shallower waters. It hadn’t happened in a few generations, but there had been instances of humans actively hunting mer-folk. Allura didn’t want anyone to have anything to do with humans, least of all her closest friend.

 

She sighed. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have followed you and I don’t understand. You’re my friend, Lance, I just don’t want to see you get hurt. You either, Hunk.”

 

Allura paused. Lance’s expression softened. Hunk stood by anxiously, looking back and forth between the two of them.

 

Allura turned back to the foreign items that lined the walls. “So long as it’s just collecting… I don’t suppose it’s all that bad.”

 

Lance heaved a sigh of relief as Allura processed his fascination with humans. He had hoped that one day he might be able to tell her, but this was far from how he imagined it going. Still, it seemed to be going better than he could’ve hoped, given the circumstances.

 

Allura seemed to take an interest in one of the many items Lance had on display, a box-like object of metal and glass with a slender, cylindrical object set inside.

 

“That’s a lantern,” Lance blurted.

 

“A lantern?”

 

He nodded eagerly. “And on the inside, that’s a candle. Humans use it to light their way at night, and Pidge says--”

 

“Pidge? What’s a Pidge?” Allura asked sharply.

 

Beside him, Hunk looked as though he would like nothing more than to turn to seafoam on the spot. Lance was feeling much the same, internally berating himself for such a careless blunder.

 

“A talking seagull?” he offered lamely.

 

Allura narrowed her eyes dangerously.

 

Lance raised his hands defensively. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you, but you can’t be mad--”

 

“Lance…”

 

“You can’t! You’re not allowed!” Lance insisted.

 

“What,” Allura demanded. “Is. A. Pidge?”

 

“Pidge-is-a-human!” Lance said very quickly, shielding himself immediately.

 

Allura, to her credit, did not immediately explode in an incoherent rage. Once her mind had fully processed this new tidbit of information about Lance, however, she immediately dove into a stern lecture about the dangers of humans, and did Lance’s family know about this, and were there any other humans she ought to know about--

 

It took the combined efforts of Lance and Hunk over the greater part of the remaining daylight, but they did eventually manage to calm Allura and convince her that they hadn’t doomed the entirety of underwater civilization. Even then she seemed on edge.

 

“It just seems so reckless,” she despaired.

 

“Hunk said the same thing when I first met Pidge,” Lance said.

 

Hunk nodded. “He’s right, I honestly thought ever time he went to see them he would never come back--that’s how he convinced me to come along, to see for myself that Pidge wasn’t going to catch Lance and sell him off or something. Or eat his tail. Or--”

 

“I think she gets it.”

 

“Right, sorry.”

 

Lance took Allura’s hands in his, their eyes meeting.

 

“Allura, I completely understand your concerns, but I promise I would never do anything to put anyone in real danger. You believe me, right?”

 

Allura blinked, as though snapping out of a trance.

 

“Of course I believe you, Lance, it’s just… this all took me quite by surprise, is all,” she said. “I suppose… if you’ve managed to keep it under control this long, there’s no reason to believe you couldn’t keep it so for a while longer.”

 

Lance grinned, and twirled with delight. “Awesome! In that case, what else should I tell you about? Ask me anything, I’m pretty much a human expert by now.”

 

Allura picked up a slender metal object, curved along its entire length. It was only slightly longer than her hand.

 

“What’s this then? It looks completely pointless,” she noted, turning it over in her hands.

 

“That’s… uh…”

 

Before Lance could further illuminate Allura on that brilliant piece of human innovation, a muted pop sounded overhead. The three mer-folk looked up, where the last of the daylight was touched with splashes of color. Lance drifted upwards towards it. Several more pops were heard. Several more flashes of vivid color.

 

“What do you suppose…?” Lance muttered, completely taken by curiosity.

 

They remained frozen in silent wonder for only a moment longer. Then Lance whipped around and out of the grotto before either Hunk or Allura could stop him. Hunk followed him with a resigned air about him, offering a knowing nod to Allura, who looked immensely perplexed. Now that she was in on the secret, this was something she would have to learn to live with.

 

By the time the other two caught up to him, Lance had already poked his head above the surface. He gasped in sheer awe at what he saw. He’d seen human ships before, but this one had explosions of light going off above it. It was a little frightening if Lance was honest, but also thrilling. Just behind him Hunk and Allura were already trying to tug him back beneath the waves. Lance couldn’t be bothered to listen to them.

 

“Do you suppose they’re fighting something?” Allura asked quietly.

 

“Doesn’t look like it,” Hunk answered.

 

“What strange creatures humans are…”

 

“Tell me about it.”

 

At first it seemed as though Lance would be content to watch from a distance, much to the relief of his friends. After a moment, however, he dove back into the water and began swimming towards the ship at full speed. In retrospect, both Hunk and Allura supposed it had been foolish to hope that Lance wouldn’t do anything rash. After all, the humans were doing something new and exciting. How could they have expected him to stay put?

 

Reluctantly, Allura and Hunk followed Lance all the way to the ship. There they tried to stop him from doing anything more, insisting that this was close enough and anything more would be far too risky. The explosions overhead had ceased, but there was nothing stopping a human from looking over the side of the ship and spotting them. The last thing they wanted was for humans to be definitely aware of the existence of mer-folk.

 

“Don’t worry, guys,” Lance assured them as he began to hoist himself up the side of the ship. “I’ve got this completely under control. I just want to see what’s going on that would have them doing that.”

 

Even as he climbed up the side of the ship with unparalleled confidence, Allura and Hunk whispered their objections. About halfway up, their voices blended in with the sound of the surf against the ship. It was a challenging climb, what with the ship pitching back and forth, but Lance had never been one to back away from a good challenge. He eventually made his way to the top, and even found himself a nice perch to sit on that allowed him a discreet view of the deck.

 

The deck was packed with more humans than Lance had ever seen in one place. They were all laughing loudly and stomping their feet against the wood in such a merry fashion that Lance couldn’t help but giggle a little. The humans were hopping to the beat of a melody, lively and jaunty. Lance couldn’t help but swish his tail through the air along with it as well. He wondered idly if this what dancing was. Pidge never did want to show him.

 

“Get in there, Keith!” a voice insisted just above Lance.

 

A new human stumbled into Lance’s view, followed closely by the strangest creature Lance had ever seen (it walked on four legs and was covered in more fur than Lance had ever thought possible to fit on a single animal) that nipped playfully at the human’s heels. The new human, who seemed younger than all the others (at the very least, his face was clean shaven and not nearly as weathered as the others), began to dance after a hesitant moment. He was not nearly as certain as the other humans that traipsed around him, but there was an earnestness in his movements that set Lance’s heart to fluttering.

 

Then the human, Keith, smiled wide, and Lance was certain that this was the most beautiful human on the face of the earth.

 

So entranced was Lance with Keith’s clumsy dancing that he didn’t notice that the shaggy beast was no longer at Keith’s side. Instead, it had its nose to the deck, sniffing intently and inching ever closer to where Lance was hidden. The creature was almost upon him by the time Lance finally noticed where it was going. He retreated back on his perch, hopefully out of sight. When he peeked back around, however, he nearly fell off the side of the ship. A curious, sniffing snout awaited him, a cold nose immediately prodding his cheek.

 

Lance stifled a laugh as the hairy beast gave him a huge, slobbery kiss. It tickled! Lance was just raising a tentative hand to give the creature a friendly pat, when a sharp whistle jerked it’s attention away.

 

“Kosmo! Come here you silly dog!”

 

Lance retreated away from the hole he was peeking through as the creature (a dog? Lance made a mental note to ask Pidge about that later) bounded away and back towards Keith. Kosmo put his paws up on Keith’s chest, and Keith ran his fingers through Kosmo’s thick fur, smiling fondly and speaking in a hushed tone to the animal. Lance sighed, leaning against the sturdy wood of the ship. He found himself wishing that Keith would smile at him, share whispers with him.

 

Kosmo ran back to where Lance was hidden, but Lance shrank back into the shadows. Keith was walking over to where he was. Lance wondered distantly how Keith would react to seeing a merman. There was no way Lance would reveal himself with so many other humans nearby, but if Lance ever happened to find Keith by himself, then perhaps…

 

~*~

 

Keith leaned against the railing as he huffed a breathless laugh. The cool night air brushed across his flushed cheeks. Nearby, Kosmo was sniffing at something again. Keith didn’t think anything of it. There must be many interesting smells on a ship at sea, Keith thought.

 

The wind whipped a little more insistently, messing Keith’s already unruly hair. He watched with keen amusement as several tipsy sailors continued to dance across the swaying deck. They were quite good, or at least better than Keith, in spite of the unstable dance floor.

 

Beside him Shiro leaned idly against the railing, looking a little tired.

 

“You alright?” Keith asked.

 

Shiro waved him off. “I’m fine.”

 

“You sure?”

 

“You’re as bad as Adam,” Shiro scoffed with a light shove.

 

Keith shoved him back, a little harder than he’d been shoved for good measure. Shiro eyed him with a mischievous glint in his eye that Keith didn’t trust at all.

 

“So you’re another year older,” Shiro started.

 

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

 

“I’m just saying, you may be the younger prince, but everyone is wondering--”

 

Keith rolled his eyes. “Then let them wonder. We’ve been over this before, I’ll settle down when I’m ready--when I find the right person.”

 

“People just want to see you happy,” Shiro said. “Including me.”

 

“I know, but you and Adam got lucky, meeting each other when you did. Anyways, it’s not like I need to get married like you. I can afford to take my time, and that’s what I intend to do. I don’t want to end up feeling like I’m trapped in a loveless marriage.”

 

Shiro snorted. “Who knew you were such a romantic.”

 

“Shut up.”

 

“Seriously, I remember when you were a kid--”

 

“Shiro, stop--”

 

“And you made this list of requirements for your future spouse, like it was a job--”

 

“Enough! Shut up!”

 

Shiro laughed, and Keith couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

 

“Seriously though, I don’t get why you’re so impatient about this,” Keith noted.

 

“Can’t I just wish happiness for my little brother on his birthday?” Shiro asked.

 

“By insisting that I need to get married off?”

 

Shiro only chuckled in response, so Keith continued, “Trust me, when the right person comes along, I’ll know. It’ll just hit me, like lightning.”

 

As if on cue, a distant rumble of thunder snapped their attention to the dark horizon. Lightning lit up an intimidating shelf of clouds. A gentle patter of rain arrived on the next gust of wind. The music died, taking the dancing with it. The mood became considerably more sober as the crew set to turning the ship around. No one wanted to fight a storm at night.

 

Swift as their actions were, there was no outrunning the storm. The mild sprinkle of rain became a veritable torrent within moments. Lightning cracked through the air, thunder barely audible above the roar of the gale. The waves reached up around them, trying to drag some poor sap down to their death. It didn’t take long for them to realize that they’d been caught in the midst of a squall against which there was no fighting. They were completely at the mercy of the sea.

 

Keith was sliding across the deck, offering help wherever he could. A monstrous wave leapt up over the side of the ship and knocked him off his feet. The ship tilted precariously, and Keith would’ve slid right off had it not been for Shiro grabbing his arm just before Keith had been tossed over the railing. Shiro gave him only a quick word of caution before setting off towards the main mast that had come loose.

 

It was bad, worse than anything Keith had experienced in all his years at sea, but he still had hope that they could make it through, so long as they could hold out just a little longer--

 

Then a stray bolt of lightning struck the main mast.

 

Keith was aware of the ringing in his ears before he had fully processed what happened. The shouting around him was muted, but the panic was evident in the expressions of the sailors. Keith whipped around towards the main mast, watching in horror as the top half of it fell to the deck. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the entire thing was engulfed by flames, too intense to be put out by the rain.

 

Keith leapt down from the quarterdeck and ran towards Shiro, who was still dazed by the lightning strike. The captain was calling for everyone to abandon ship. The fire spread from the fallen mast to the rest of the ship. Things were quickly going from bad to worse.

 

By the time the fire had spread to the entirety of the ship, the entire crew, Shiro and Keith included, were watching from the water. The rain had stopped, the wind remaining to aggravate the fire. It seemed as though they would make it through the ordeal unscathed. Keith was allowing himself to breathe a sigh of relief when a frantic barking made his insides twist with nauseating guilt. Kosmo.

 

Keith was back in the water before anyone could stop him. The climb back up the side of the crumbling ship was precarious. He hopped over the railing mid-deck--Kosmo was on the quarterdeck, the stairs leading down completely collapsed already. Keith wasn’t sure he could climb up to the quarterdeck. Smoke and embers pressed in on all sides.

 

He held out his arms. “Kosmo! Jump!”

 

His dog hesitated only a second before leaping over the railing of the quarterdeck. Keith nearly fell over when Kosmo landed in his arms, but he managed to stay upright. He wasted no time in running to the side of the ship, towards where the rest of the crew was waiting. He prepared to jump; there was no time for climbing. Just as Keith pushed against the deck to launch himself and Kosmo overboard, however, the wood gave way under him. His momentum pushed Kosmo overboard with a shrill yelp.

 

Keith’s ankle was stuck. The jagged edges were digging into his leg painfully. He was coughing and sputtering, his eyes were watering. The crack of the ship falling apart around him was almost overwhelming. He yanked hard on his leg; it was almost loose. The only warning Keith had that something was about to go horribly wrong was a sharp hiss of something other than wood catching, and the beginning of a deafening explosion.

 

Then there was nothing but black.

 

~*~

 

Lance dropped off the ship not long after the storm hit. It had started rocking too wildly for him to do otherwise. Allura and Hunk pleaded with him to leave with them, to take refuge well below the surface. They could not drown, but to be in a storm this close to a ship was far too dangerous. They had almost convinced Lance to retreat when the surface of the water dipped down and ripped them up from below. The wave tossed them mercilessly, and Lance found himself separated from the other two.

 

He slapped the water hard, and Lance had to blink a few times to reorient himself. Allura and Hunk were nowhere to be see. Part of him insisted that he should find them and make sure they all got to safety. The rest of him hesitated, wanting to keep an eye on the humans, on Keith. Storms were far more dangerous for humans than mer-folk. The numerous shipwrecks that Lance had explored were proof of that.

 

Lance jumped back when the lightning struck the mast. There were spots in his vision no matter how much he blinked. Before his vision had completely cleared, the ship was alight with something bright, something that set the humans to screaming. Lance wasn’t certain, but he felt like that might be fire. He wasn’t so sure he liked it very much.

 

It wasn’t long after that that the humans began to abandon ship. Lance breathed a sigh of relief as the storm began to die down. The fire flared up, burning with such intensity that Lance could feel the heat from where he was observing. The ship began to collapse into the water. Lance wondered what sort of things he might find on the ship once it sank, now that he didn’t have to worry about anyone dying.

 

Then Keith got back onto the blazing ship.

 

In the light of the blaze, it was all too easy to see who the madman climbing back onto the ship was. Though he didn’t know him, Lance had half a mind to shout and drag Keith back off the ship, until he saw why Keith had gone back in the first place. Kosmo had been left behind.

 

Lance watched anxiously. Keith caught Kosmo in his arms and sprinted back to the railing. Kosmo jumped ship. Keith did not. Lance held his breath. What was Keith waiting on? As far as Lance could see Keith was struggling with something. It was a race against time; Keith only needed to get off the ship before it completely fell apart. Lance couldn’t have ever imagined how much worse the situation could’ve gotten until it did.

 

The ship was blown apart with a deafening explosion that ripped a sharp gasp from Lance. Without a second thought he dove back into the water, swimming straight towards the debris. The water glowed a hot-orange color. It was almost blinding. Lance pushed through the charred remains of the ship as the sank around him, looking for anything vaguely human shaped.

 

He found it after only a moment, sinking a little faster than everything around him. Lance dove for the unconscious human immediately. With a mighty push of his bright blue tail, Lance dragged Keith up to the surface. Keith did not rouse once they were there. Lance took a moment to weigh his options, using a larger piece of wood to help keep Keith above the water.

 

The other humans were not very far, but could Lance deliver Keith without being spotted? He could deliver Keith on the piece of wood he was currently perched on, he considered, but in the light of the dying flames there was no guarantee that Lance wouldn’t be seen. Being spotted by panicked humans was the last thing Lance wanted. Kindly as he felt towards humans, there was no telling how they might react to something so unexpected.

 

Ultimately, Lance decided to swim Keith to shore himself. It would take some time, but Lance was confident he could do it. If Keith woke before they made it… Lance decided he would only worry about that if it actually happened. He didn’t want to spend too much more time thinking over things. The sooner he got Keith to safety the better.

 

Allura and Hunk found him about halfway through his journey, alarmed but at the same time unsurprised that he was swimming a human to safety. Allura in particular regarded the human with extreme caution, as though he might wake at any moment and literally bite their heads off (in spite of the absence of fangs and the fact that they could easily drown him if he decided to attack them), and she kept a fair distance away from Lance all the way to the shore.

 

By the time they made it to shallow waters, Lance was breathing hard and the sun was peeking over the horizon to reveal clear skies. Keith remained unconscious all the while, even as Lance less than gracefully dragged him onto land. Lance paused to recover, slumped next to Keith’s splayed out form. He pressed a hand to Keith’s chest; he was breathing, thankfully.

 

Thus assured of Keith’s safety, Lance was about to leave, but stopped short. He was alive and breathing, yes, but he had not roused once throughout the journey to shore. Could Lance really just leave him like this, with no guarantee that he would wake, or that anyone would find him?

 

Allura was confident that he could, and insisted that he should. Hunk, despite being a bit more comfortable with humans than Allura, seemed to agree. Lance, contrary as ever, took their opinions as a sign to stay. After all, if he hadn’t stayed through the storm, Keith would’ve drowned for sure.

 

So he waited by Keith’s side, studying his features closely as if to commit them to memory. He had a mess of night-black hair that was plastered to his face in thick strands. Lance brushed it gingerly away. It was such thick hair, and it nearly reached Keith’s shoulders. He could tie it back if he wanted.

 

“Lance?!” a familiar voice gasped.

 

Lance whipped his head up. “Pidge!”

 

“Oh my--how in the world--” they stammered.

 

“There was a storm,” Lance started to explain.

 

“I know, the rest of the crew got back not too long ago, they all thought Keith was dead! I was actually hoping to find you to ask if you could find Keith, but it looks like you’re a step ahead of me,” Pidge said. Then their brow furrowed. “Is he…?”

 

“He’s alive,” Lance assured them.

 

Pidge heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”

 

“He hasn’t woken up since I found him though.”

 

Pidge looked from Keith’s prone form to somewhere down the beach, their expression that of fierce contemplation.

 

“I can’t carry him back by myself,” Pidge said.

 

Lance glanced to his glaring lack of legs. “Uh…”

 

“I’ll have to get help,” they clarified. “But I don’t want to leave him behind.”

 

“I’ll stay with him,” Lance said.

 

“But when I come back with help, you might be spotted.”

 

“If I can hear you coming I can probably get back into the water quick enough,” Lance reasoned. “I’m willing to risk it.”

 

Pidge eyed him curiously, but eventually nodded and sprinted back down the beach. Lance turned his attention back to Keith. A few drops of sea water still lingered on his cheeks; Lance brushed them away, noticing how uncommonly long Keith’s lashes were as he did. Lance found himself wanting to know the color of his eyes, among other things.

 

“I wonder,” he mused in a low tone. “What sort of person are you? What sort of things do you like to do? Do you like to dance? Read? Or do you do things that I’ve never heard of, could never even imagine… won’t you wake up and tell me?”

 

As if bidden by Lance’s words, Keith sighed deeply, his lashes fluttering. He blinked hard in the glaring morning light; Lance noted with delight that Keith’s eyes were a deep, brilliant violet, not unlike the sky just after the sunset. Keith reached up with a weary hand; Lance froze. He should be leaving, a reasonable part of his mind said, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to, not when Keith placed his hand over Lance’s so tenderly, absently stroking the back of his hand. Lance beamed, his eyes meeting Keith’s. Suddenly Lance couldn’t think of a reason to leave.

 

Until he heard voices from down the beach. His head snapped up, almost immediately spotting Pidge’s slight figure even from a distance. Reluctant as he was, Lance had to leave. He slipped his hand out of Keith’s, savoring the lingering warmth, and dove back into the crashing waves before Keith could even push himself up to watch him go. Allura and Hunk were ready and waiting with every lecture in the book and then some, but Lance could hardly hear them.

 

Lance hardly waited a minute before he was peeking above the surface again, watching Pidge and the the other people they’d brought carry Keith away. Even as Lance watched him go, he knew he would see Keith again. He had to. The beating of his very heart would not allow otherwise.

 

It took forever for Hunk and Allura to drag Lance beneath the waves again. By then they knew it was hopeless to even try to lecture him, especially since no one other than Pidge had really seen him. All they could do was firmly guide their lovestruck fool of a friend home, where he could hopefully cool his head.

 

In the aftermath of all the excitement, not one of them had a clue they were being watched once more.

 

“Well, well,” a keenly interested voice mused. “This is certainly not a development I expected, but one that I can make excellent use of.”

 

Vivid yellow eyes gleamed wickedly as they danced across the image shown in the watching bubble. Several pairs of eyes watched eagerly from the shadows. The eyes turned to those waiting.

 

“I think it’s time we do some gardening,” the watcher suggested with a grin. “Plant the seeds of doubt among the mer-folk. Suggest that their darling youngest prince is more interested in the one thing that would see them destroyed. That should do nicely.”

 

Four shadows nodded obligingly and immediately swam away. There were hardly any bubbles left in their wake. Sharp eyes returned to the image of three young mer-folk sneaking back into a glimmering palace after an entire night away. It seemed too easy. The watcher couldn’t help but chuckle. Were anyone else nearby they might’ve felt a chill run through the water at the mere sound.

 

“Who would’ve thought, that of all the fish in the sea, this princeling would fall for a human prince.”

 

~*~

 

The sun rose and set on the kingdom as it was wont to do. Several delegations that were present at the state dinner returned to their homes. Allura’s delegation stayed a while longer, having another meeting to attend before they left. It was just as well, Hunk decided. If Lance had been insufferable before, there was simply no describing how he was now. Hunk was glad to have Allura help wrangle the prince, if only for a little while longer.

 

It wasn’t that Lance had been more intent on getting out and above the surface in search of the object of his affections. Such was his state though that Hunk almost wished he would. He’d been floating around the palace aimlessly wearing a blissed out expression and always a few words away from revealing everything. A Lance in love was not a Lance capable of keeping his mouth shut, it seemed.

 

Hunk and Allura were by his side as often as they could be. It wasn’t highly unusual. Allura was known to be a particular friend of Lance’s (the possibility of marriage between them had been entertained some years earlier; sometimes Lance’s parents suggested that the idea wasn’t completely off the table yet), and Hunk was always by Lance’s side anyways. For all their careful treading, however, Veronica suspected that something was up. She didn’t dare try to confront them with Allura nearby, but they all knew it was just a matter of time before she cornered either Lance or Hunk.

 

Her method was far more direct than any of them had expected.

 

“Princess,” Veronica greeted with a slight bow. Allura nodded her head in return. “I was wondering if I could have a word with my brother? I know you only have so much time left here, but it’s rather important. I assure you I’ll make it quick.”

 

Allura glanced at Lance, who seemed to barely register his own sister in front of him. Then to Hunk, who already looked nervous.

 

“I--”

 

“Thank you so much, we won’t be long,” Veronica pushed, grabbing Lance by the arm and swiftly dragging him away. Allura and Hunk were left to gape like fish.

 

“We’re done for,” Hunk whispered. Allura couldn’t find it in her to disagree.

 

Meanwhile Lance had snapped out of his mooning for long enough to realize that Veronica looked especially stern. He grimaced. She couldn’t possibly be onto his secret, could she? He’d been careless, he knew, but surely not that careless! She steered him into an empty sitting room and released him.

 

“A delegation from the Taujeerian trench is coming tomorrow,” she began without preamble. “They want to meet with us, the entire royal family. We’ll be discussing the contract regarding our kingdom’s use of their thermal vents. I think it goes without saying that this is incredibly important.”

 

“Then why’d you say it?”

 

Veronica scowled in a way that suggested to Lance that now was not the time for jokes.

 

“I’m serious, Lance. You’ve gotten away with a lot, but we cannot afford to have you be late to this. I don’t even want to consider the idea that you’d miss it. Do you understand?”

 

“Important stuff, do not miss under pain of death,” Lance summarized airily.

 

Veronica narrowed her eyes at him. “The only reason I believe you is because Princess Allura is around. You always behave a little better when she’s around. In spite of that, I’m having Rizavi and Leifsdottir keep you all company until tomorrow just in case.”

 

“What?! You’re giving me babysitters?!” Lance exclaimed.

 

“If you had proven before that you’d be able to make it to these things on time I wouldn’t have to!” Veronica snapped back.

 

“I’ll be there, I promise, just don’t have them follow me everywhere!”

 

“No can do, baby brother,” Veronica said, already swimming to the door. “And don’t try swimming all over the place to try and lose them, or next time I’m tying your tail around a pole.”

 

She left before Lance could get another word in. To say he was furious was perhaps a mild understatement. It was enough to say that he was genuinely surprised that there weren’t bubbles coming out of his ears. He left the room not long after Veronica, to find the two knights waiting expectantly. Lance offered them his most petulant frown before swimming off in search of Allura and Hunk.

 

They weren’t far, and confused to see Rizavi and Leifsdottir following close behind Lance.

 

“Allura, Hunk, these are my babysitters--”

 

“Knights of the crown!” Rizavi corrected indignantly. “And royal babysitters.”

 

Lance’s frown deepened. “Rizavi and Leifsdottir. There’s a really important meeting with the Taujeerians tomorrow--”

 

“Oh, it’s tomorrow? I thought it wasn’t for another few movements,” Allura commented. Then, upon seeing Lance’s face, “Apologies, Lance, continue.”

 

Lance blew a stream of bubbles. “There’s a really important meeting with the Taujeerians tomorrow, and Veronica doesn’t trust me to be on time on my own, so she’s having these two watch my every move until I am solidly in my chair at that meeting.”

 

“Oh.”

 

A beat of silence carried on the current running through the hall.

 

“I suspect the youngest prince doesn’t want us here,” Leifsdottir commented.

 

“Gee, you think?” Rizavi replied with a sarcastic grin as she eyed the suffering prince.

 

Initially, Lance resolved to be a good prince and go along with what his sister wanted. It was the most likely way to get her off his back, anyways. And at first, it seemed to be going well. The two knights kept some distance and didn’t bother Lance and his friends. He could almost imagine that they weren’t even there. His mind began to slip back into its most recent and favorite pastime as Lance, Hunk, and Allura settled in their favorite sitting room, the one with a glass dome for a ceiling (around midday, the sun hit the glass in such a way that warmed the water of the entire room, making it a rather relaxing place to retire).

 

He had just been imagining a chance meeting, a coincidence really, involving Lance casually sunning himself on a rock near the shore, where a certain human might pass by. The vivid blue of Lance’s tail would certainly catch the human’s eye, and upon closer inspection he might find something familiar about that face…

 

Lance couldn’t help but smile at the thought. He reached over towards a column of coral, where an array of lovely flowers were blooming, and plucked one with petals of deep violet. He ran his fingers over the silky petals. He wondered if Keith thought of him at all (he wondered if Keith thought of him in the way Lance thought of him). Lance liked to believe he did (he very much hoped he did).

 

Lance had just begun plucking the petals, muttering under his breath (“He loves me, he loves me not…”), when Rizavi made her presence known again.

 

“Aw, does our little princey-prince have a crush?!” she squealed.

 

“He’s been distracted from his companions’ conversation this entire time, has an affected look about him, and is plucking petals in a manner consistent with a method used to discover the feelings of the object of one’s affection--It’s safe to say that our prince is indeed infatuated with someone,” Leifsdottir droned.

 

Lance crushed the loose petals in his hand.

 

“What? Lance? In love with someone? No…” Hunk insisted.

 

“He definitely is,” Rizavi pressed.

 

Allura jumped in. “Lance is most definitely not in infatuated with anyone, much less in love.”

 

“I have to wonder how good friends you are then, if you haven’t noticed such obvious behavior,” Leifsdottir said.

 

Instantly Allura took on her princess posture. “I beg your pardon?”

 

Both Leifsdottir and Rizavi recoiled. It was one thing to poke fun at a prince they’d known for years. The crown princess of an allied kingdom, however, was quite another thing. They bowed their heads without another word, but Lance was far past being done with them. He had to lose them, and quick.

 

Lance weighed his options. There could be no plotting with Allura and Hunk, so whatever he did, he would just have to hope that they followed along. The steadfast knights likely knew the palace as well as Lance himself. He would have a better shot if he could make it out. He wasn’t sure how fast they could swim, but Lance was willing to bet that, without any extra armor weighing him down, he would be faster.

 

It was just a matter of getting out of the palace first.

 

Lance meandered casually out of the sitting room. Allura and Hunk weren’t far behind, followed closely by Rizavi and Leifsdottir. He didn’t make a mad dash for the first exit he saw--that would be far too obvious. He had to be subtle, he had to be clever, he had to be--

 

“Something tells me Prince Lance is trying to escape our watch,” Leifsdottir said.

 

Lance had to grind his teeth from saying anything, but gave the knights a sharp look over his shoulder. It was no wonder Veronica had assigned these two specifically to watch him.

 

Palace chase it was then.

 

Lance changed direction so quickly he swore his tail made a sound like the crack of a whip. Hunk yelped, Allura tried to stop him; Rizavi and Leifsdottir were on him without a single sound of surprise. He sped down the hall, grinning wildly. Lance was determined to have some fun with this whether he succeeded in losing his royal babysitters or not.

 

He took a sharp right and turned right back around just as Rizavi and Leifsdottir were following around the corner. Allura and Hunk were a ways behind, unsure if they should follow Lance or let him try to swim himself silly. Lance offered them a cheery wave as he sped by, the two knights hot on his tail (maybe a little farther behind than before).

 

When he took a left, he didn’t double back again, instead making his way towards a place in the palace where he knew the coral had grown old. It ended up becoming a natural tunnel system through the palace that he and his siblings had explored thoroughly throughout their childhood, and while Lance had no doubt that Rizavi and Leifsdottir knew about it, he was positive that they didn’t know it nearly as well as he did.

 

Lance zipped through one hall after another, sometimes doubling back, sometimes not, but always keeping Rizavi and Leifsdottir guessing. The coral tunnels were at the very heart of the palace, where he risked being spotted by one of his family members. It was a risk he was willing to take. It took twice as long for him to get there, what with all the twists and turns he threw at the long suffering knights. He had to keep himself from cheering loudly when he finally did make it.

 

The tunnels were a lot smaller than he remembered. Several times he scraped himself against the old coral, but he didn’t dare slow down. Rizavi and Leifsdottir were on the edge of panic now, and he could hear them yelling not too far behind him. A right turn, a left, middle fork and two more rights, careful not to run into them from another part of this veritable maze.

 

Lance stopped short when he heard the knights yelling in front of him rather than behind, or from the side. He peered through the porous coral, biting his lip to keep from giggling.

 

“We haven’t lost him, we know he’s in here somewhere!” Rizavi was insisting.

 

“I suppose that depends on your definition of ‘lost’,” Leifsdottir replied.

 

“We haven’t lost him!”

 

“Princess Veronica will likely not be happy about this.”

 

Lance was on the verge of exploding with laughter, so he quickly ducked down into the lower tunnels. If he remembered correctly (and he was certain he did), at least one of the tunnels lead out of the palace. He felt a little guilty at having ditched Hunk and Allura, but he could always meet up with them later. He just couldn’t spend the rest of his day with people nannying him. All he wanted was some room to breathe. That wasn’t so much to ask for, right?

 

Free of his babysitters, Lance swam at an amiable pace towards his grotto. Perhaps Allura and Hunk would think to find him there later. Either way, he could hide out there until the sun went down and then make his way back to the palace to get a good night’s sleep, and then be up and ready for the oh-so-important meeting that their allies just had to have him at (more than likely they just wanted to see if the rumors of his silvertongued gift were true).

 

Lance had just been meandering through the tall seaweed that surrounded his secret cove when a shadow darted past, catching the corner of his vision. He curled down low. Either there was a predator lurking nearby, or Rizavi and Leifsdottir had found him more easily than he would’ve thought. Lance waited with bated breath. The shadow swam away. 

 

Lance inched closer to the entrance of his grotto, still careful not to make any sudden movements. When he reached the entrance, however, his stomach dropped to the bottom of his tail like the anchor of a sunken ship. Several carefully curated objects were strewn about the sand of the entrance. A quick peek inside showed Lance that the inside was worse. He realized that the shadow had not been pesky knights or a predator looking for a bite of his detail.

 

It had been a thief.

 

“Hey!” Lance shrieked, darting after the mysterious shadow.

 

Whoever they were, they were a fast swimmer. Even as Lance flipped his fins as quickly as they would take him, the thief had a solid lead on him. They kept low to the ocean floor, kicking up sand as they went to throw Lance off their trail, but he was not to be deterred, not even with sand in his eyes. He kicked hard with his tail; just a bit closer and he might be able to grab them.

 

Lance reached out, stretching his hand as far as it would go. He almost had them. Just a little closer, and--

 

The thief stopped abruptly and whipped Lance in the face with their tail. Lance automatically recoiled, nearly crashing into the sand as he did. The texture of their tail was abrasive and left Lance’s cheek (and pride) stinging. Lance grit his teeth. They were not getting away.

 

Lance pushed himself off from the ground and sped after the thief. They had made ample use of the scant few seconds their attack had given them. In the dim evening light, Lance could hardly make out their figure. He refused to let that stop him.

 

The thief turned this way and that, through forests of kelp and massive coral reefs; Lance pursued them doggedly all the while. His entire tail was aching with the effort. He did not let himself slow down. Not as his lungs burned, not as his entire body screamed in protest. Especially not as he started to creep ever closer towards the thief once more.

 

Then the thief disappeared into a labyrinthine outcropping of rocks. Lance thought he had been close enough behind them to not lose them, but as soon as they went out of Lance’s sight, they vanished. Lance swam upwards, trying to see if he could spot them from above. Nothing. And with every passing moment that Lance did not spot them again, his fatigue threatened to overtake him completely.

 

Lance drifted down to the top of a tall column of rock, sighing deeply. He looked around. He realized that he hadn’t been paying attention to where the thief had been leading him, and now his surroundings were completely unfamiliar to him. The sun had just set. The skin of his face was still throbbing slightly.

 

Lance let himself rest for some time. Exhaustion had seeped into his very bones, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep the next several days away. He sighed deeply. He had to get home. The best way to do that would be to swim upwards and follow the surface currents until he found a familiar one to take him home. It was just a matter of making himself get up.

 

“Okay Lancey-Lance, let’s get a move on, you’ve got a super important meeting to get to in the morning,” he muttered to himself.

 

He did not immediately move from his perch.

 

“Your loving older sister will kill you if you’re not home in the morning,” Lance continued. “Then again, she’ll probably kill me for ditching her knights.”

 

It took several more minutes of unenthused cajoling with himself for Lance to finally swim upwards to judge the currents. He knew that his grotto was northeast of the palace, so he guessed that that was the general direction he was in. By that logic, the warmer currents ought to take him home.

 

Lance chose large, cozy current to drift along, his tail undulating lazily. It was just enough to keep him within the current. His eyes fluttered every once in a while. That chase had been more taxing than he had initially guessed. He idly ran his fingers across his cheek, wondering how bad it looked. Hopefully it was something that would be gone by morning. He didn’t need Veronica nagging him for being anything less than perfectly presentable for a visiting delegation.

 

Far too much time had passed before Lance realized that the scenery below wasn’t becoming any more familiar. The beginning of a panic began to squirm in his gut. He couldn’t possibly be lost in his own kingdom, right? Of all his family, he was the one that explored it most often. Then again, he always paid attention to the currents he took going out. He hadn’t done that this time.

 

Lance took a deep breath. Panicking wouldn’t do him any good. He just had to try something new.

 

Lance left the current and swam upwards, hissing as his face met the sharp night air above the surface. The sky was brilliantly bedecked with stars. He paused for a moment to admire them in spite of the chill. Normally he came to the surface during the day; it wasn’t often he got to see the stars. 

 

After a few moments, Lance forced himself to focus again. He scanned the horizon for any sign of land. If he could find the shoreline, he could most assuredly find his way home. He had to squint, and even then he couldn’t be sure of what he saw in such deep darkness, but Lance was almost certain he could see a large shadow looming in the distance. A notion was better than nothing. Lance swam for it.

 

He swam just below the surface, popping up every once in a while to make sure there really was land ahead. The shadow grew more clear cut against the starry sky. Lance propelled himself a little faster. He really wanted to get home and get whatever sleep he could before the meeting in the morning. 

 

Only a few lights were lit along the shoreline when Lance reached it. The stark shadows made everything unfamiliar. Lance worried at his bottom lip. If he swam along the coast he would eventually come across something familiar and then find his way home. It was just a question of which way. If he went the wrong way, that would consume a greater part of the night, but there was no telling how soon he would be able to tell which way was the right way.

 

Then again, Lance thought, treading water just thinking about it would waste just as much time. He looked to his right: a brightly lit but quiet shipyard full of moored ships of all kinds. Even from a distance Lance could see one or two humans milling about. It was exactly the sort of place he would want to explore if he had more time (he made a note to himself to do just that another night). To his left, a long stretch of dark, even quieter beach.

 

Lance took another deep breath. He went left.

 

It was perhaps the longest and most boring swim Lance had ever taken. Everything was simply too dark to be interesting, and Lance was becoming increasingly tired and cold. Worry gnawed at the back of his mind. How long would it take him to find his way home? How long to sunrise? Lance shivered. The cold air bit at him every time he went above the surface. He stuck to warm currents as often as he could.

 

When Lance realized that he could see things more clearly, and that there were fewer stars in the sky than before, he finally allowed himself to truly panic.

 

Morning was not far.

 

He’d been lost for the entire night.

 

A torrent of feelings descended upon Lance in an instant.

 

He was upset with himself; how could he have gotten lost so easily?!

 

He was furious with Veronica; if she had just let him be this wouldn’t have happened!

 

Most of all Lance felt utterly and completely hopeless. He’d been confident that he would make it to that super-ultra-mega important meeting (and on time), confident that he could do it right. Maybe he hadn’t been exactly enthusiastic about it, but that didn’t mean he wanted to disappoint his entire family.

 

Lance leaned against a rock, eyes screwed shut against the swirling current of awful feelings. He shivered again, the motion jostling the tiniest sob from him.

 

“Hello?”

 

Lance gasped, freezing behind the rock and slowly sinking back into the water.

 

“Is someone there? Do you need help?”

 

Lance was ready to swim away, but paused just as the water reached his face. He recognized that voice.

 

A deep sigh was heard. “I must be losing my mind, Kosmo.”

 

Heart-wrenching excitement mingled with his nauseating panic. Lance had wanted to see him again, but there was no way he was ready for this! Of all times for them to meet again!

 

Lance peered around the rock carefully. His heart leapt into his throat. The morning light was still dim, but just bright enough that Lance could make out a human figure pacing on the beach, followed closely by a furry, four-legged creature. There was no doubt.

 

Lance hid behind the rock again, trying to calm his heart for long enough to think with his head. He’d imagined a thousand different scenarios in the days since he’d rescued Keith, and all of the dialogue he’d come up with, from spectacular opening lines to passionate confessions of love, had promptly vanished the instant he’d laid eyes on Keith.

 

Still, this was a chance. A chance that Lance had to take.

 

He took a deep breath--

 

\--and was promptly yanked down into the water by his tail.

 

Lance was ready to shout at whoever had the audacity to pull on his tail (and more importantly, they had interrupted such a significant moment in Lance’s romantic endeavors), until he saw Rizavi wearing an uncharacteristically grim expression.

 

“Apologies for the rough treatment, your Highness,” she said plainly. “But I’ve been ordered to deliver you expressly to the palace at once. I’m sure you understand.”

 

Her tone left no room for argument. Her eyes held none of that mischievous light they were normally alight with. Nearby, even Leifsdottir looked stern. Lance went without protest. Panic settled alongside his fatigue, weighing so heavy on him that he was surprised he didn’t sink.

 

The sun had fully risen by the time they returned to the palace. Lance was escorted to a sitting room that was part of Veronica’s residence. He was left by himself, told that his sister would see him shortly. Lance tried to sit, but his tail swished jerkily through the water too often. He ended up swimming circles around the room.

 

The door opened. Lance froze in place.

 

Veronica’s expression was not at all what he had been expecting. There was a touch of exasperation, but mostly she just looked tired. Lance wished she looked more angry.

 

“Veronica, I know I messed up--”

 

“Lance.”

 

His mouth snapped shut.

 

“This is beyond messing up. This--I don’t even know where to begin.”

 

Lance waited in silence for her to continue.

 

Veronica sighed. “I get it. There’s a lot of pressure on you to do well, even though you’re the youngest prince. But you can’t just run away from your problems--”

 

“I’m not trying to run away!”

 

“Then what are you trying to do, Lance?! You’ve always neglected your duties--” she began loudly.

 

“I have not--”

 

“--and you’re more concerned with humans than your own people!” Veronica shouted a little more loudly.

 

Lance clenched his fists. “That’s not true!”

 

“Isn’t it?” Veronica challenged, narrowing her eyes. Then she sighed, her entire body slumping. “Maybe this is my fault. I thought it was just a harmless hobby, something we didn’t need to worry our parents about.”

 

She spoke in a dangerously soft voice.

 

“Then the rumors started.”

 

“Rumors?”

 

Veronica scowled at him. “If you were around your own people once in a while you’d know. People are saying you’d sell out the entire kingdom to humans. Some think you already have.”

 

“I would never--”

 

“I didn’t think anything of them,” Veronica pressed. “People like to talk, and I thought I knew my own brother.”

 

Lance didn’t like the way she’d said that.

 

“Then, last night, you ditched the knights I assigned to keep an eye on you. It didn’t surprise me much, but I figured you would come back. You didn’t.”

 

Veronica began to swim back and forth, not once looking at Lance.

 

“Not only did you worry our entire family half out of their minds, but you worried Hunk and Princess Allura too,” she scolded. “We had guards combing the entire kingdom for you, but there was no sign of you. It wasn’t until around midnight that we got some clue of where you’d gone.”

 

She paused, as though considering her next words.

 

Her tone became even quieter, but no less stern. “Allura and Hunk came to me and told me about your collection.”

 

“They what--!”

 

“They found it completely trashed and thought that you were in trouble! They were completely right to tell me about it!”

 

Lance pressed his lips tightly together.

 

“I had Rizavi and Leifsdotter investigate, and told them to bring you straight home if they found you. And where should they find you but in shallow water about to reveal yourself to a human!”

 

Her voice rose with every word. She was facing Lance now, her posture almost threatening. Lance found himself backing away on instinct. Then he steeled himself.

 

“I wasn’t about to reveal myself--”

 

“Like you didn’t reveal yourself to that human who tells you all about the things you collect? Like you didn’t reveal yourself to the human you rescued?!” Veronica demanded.

 

Lance felt his breath catch in his throat.

 

“How many more humans have there been, Lance?”

 

“Just those two.”

 

Veronica shook her head. “I don’t even know if I can believe you. Rizavi and Leifsdotter saw you about to approach that human on the beach--”

 

“He wasn’t a different human, he was the one I rescued!”

 

“It doesn’t matter, you shouldn’t have rescued him in the first place!”

 

“So I was just supposed to let him drown?!”

 

“Yes!” Veronica shrieked, throwing her hands up in the air. “He could end up telling other humans about us!”

 

“You act like him and all the other humans are going to hunt us for sport!”

 

“Because they have!”

 

“Yeah, several centuries ago! Veronica, if we could just talk to some humans and maybe negotiate--”

 

“No, Lance, I don’t want to hear it! It’s all you ever talk about, and you can’t go on ignoring your responsibilities any longer! If you applied even half of your enthusiasm for humans towards something productive--”

 

Lance huffed harshly. “So I’m only supposed to speak when I say what you want me to say?”

 

“That’s not what I said--”

 

“No,” Lance spat. “But it’s what you meant.”

 

Lance escaped from the room before Veronica could utter another word, slamming the door and feeling every bit a petulant child. He felt worse for it. His first instinct was to swim to his rooms, but he met Allura and Hunk halfway there. A stab of guilt pierced his heart, followed closely by the sting of betrayal. They’d told Veronica everything. Everything he’d worked so hard to keep a secret for so long.

 

“Lance! Oh, Lance, buddy, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Hunk exclaimed.

 

“What happened to your face?! You really were attacked!” Allura gasped.

 

Lance scowled and turned away, unconsciously touching the abrasion on his cheek. He still had no idea how bad it actually was.

 

“Lance? Are you… okay?” Hunk asked.

 

Here, Lance looked up at them. There were bags under their eyes. Hunk’s golden tail was twitching, as it did when Hunk was especially anxious. Allura’s dusty pink tail was perfectly still, a tell-tale sign that she was working especially hard to keep herself composed. Lance’s gut roiled with a sickening mix of guilt and fury.

 

“No,” Lance finally said, his voice as ominously quiet as Veronica’s had been only moments earlier. “I’m not.”

 

“Let’s get a doctor then, we’ll get you patched up in no time,” Hunk began.

 

“That’s not it.”

 

Allura frowned. “Then what is it?”

 

“You guys are my friends. I trusted you.”

 

Hunk’s eyes went wide. “Lance, we were just worried about you! Your collection was a mess, and that’s the one thing you keep absolutely pristine! What were we supposed to think?!”

 

“I don’t know, but you didn’t have to tell Veronica about Pidge, or Keith!”

 

“That wasn’t Hunk,” Allura interrupted sternly. “That was me.”

 

“Well, thanks for that! Now I’m not only a disappointment to my family, but the entire kingdom now too! Just what I’ve wanted in life! At least now maybe I’ll be left alone,” Lance scoffed.

 

“Lance, that’s not--”

 

“Whatever,” Lance snapped, eyes flashing. “Just leave me alone!”

 

Lance wasn’t sure if he wanted them to follow anyways or not as he swam away. Regardless, they did as he bid them. Lance was left to swim in fuming silence.

 

He thought he’d been swimming aimlessly, only wanting to be anywhere that wasn’t the palace. In his head Lance was still arguing with everyone. Unfortunately, they were arguing back, and they were far less kind in his head. Just as he was starting to think he needed a distraction, something to quiet everything in his head, his hand brushed along some tall seaweed.

 

Lance found himself at his not-so-secret-anymore grotto. In spite of knowing that his sister knew about it now, Lance couldn’t help but want to go in, content to console himself with all his knick-knacks and thingamabobs. More so, it would be easy to distract himself by cleaning up the mess that had been made by that thief and figuring out what exactly they’d made off with.

 

When he slipped into the grotto, however, it was like being dropped out of a cold and turbulent current into colder, quieter waters. The grotto, which only a day earlier had been crammed to the brim with all sorts of delightful oddities, was completely empty. Lance sank to the ground in despair. Years of collecting and appraising--gone. 

 

It was too much for Lance to fathom. Where only a moment before he’d felt filled to the brim with frustration and misery, now Lance felt empty. There was no question in his mind as to who had done this, and why, but he still couldn’t quite comprehend it. He wanted to storm back to the palace and demand explanation, but he was certain he already knew what he would hear.

 

So instead, all Lance could do was drape himself across a nearby rock and begin to weep. The sobs wracked his fatigue-ridden body so violently that Lance hugged himself tightly in a weak attempt to quell his shaking. It offered little, if any comfort.

 

Lance had been so consumed by his melancholy that he did not notice several shadows slip into the grotto with him.

 

“Are you alright?” a voice asked Lance.

 

Lance whipped around to find his grotto, his private space, invaded by three unfamiliar mermaids. They looked at him with varying looks of genuine pity. Lance turned sharply away.

 

“It’s none of your business.”

 

“Well excuse us for wanting to offer help,” the largest of the three, with a tail like a scorpion fish, scoffed.

 

“I don’t need your help.”

 

“It’s not our help we’re offering,” the mermaid with characteristics of an angler fish said.

 

Lance didn’t say anything, but cast a sidelong glance at the mysterious mermaids. A mermaid with a shark tail swam a little closer.

 

“It just seems as though you have a very serious problem,” she said. “Valued for something you don’t even want, rejected for something that’s an intrinsic part of you, and to top it all off, in love with someone you could never possibly be with.”

 

“But what if you could be with him?” the angler mermaid piped.

 

Lance frowned. “What do you mean?”

 

“We represent someone who could make all your dreams come true,” the scorpion fish mermaid said with a fierce grin.

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

The shark mermaid extended a hand to Lance. “Lotor has great powers.”

 

“He can help you.”

 

“You wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.”

 

Lance recoiled from them. Lotor was a name spoken in hushed tones throughout the various kingdoms of the mer-folk. A great many stories swirled around the name, but the general consensus seemed to be that he should not be trusted. Rumor had it that he dabbled in old and dark magic, older and far more dangerous than any supposed silvertongue gift. Downtrodden as he was, Lance was determined not to resort to something so treacherous.

 

“No, no way, absolutely not, get out of here! I’m not interested in anything Lotor has to offer so you can just take your offer and--”

 

“Cool it little prince, we’re not forcing you to do anything,” the scorpion fish mermaid interrupted.

 

“Yeah, it was only a suggestion,” said the angler mermaid as they began to leave.

 

The shark mermaid was the last to leave, casting one last glance at Lance over her shoulder.

 

“See you ‘round, silvertongue.”

 

Lance sniffed, left alone in a chilling silence. The name seemed to echo in the emptiness of what he’d once had. It seemed to slap Lance in the face as it reverberated (more likely the scrape on his face was stinging again). Even so, the force of the name eventually forced Lance up from his spot on the ground, out of the cavern, and towards the retreating mermaids.

 

“Wait!”

 

~*~

 

“I don’t know about this,” Allura said as they swam. “He seemed so upset… Are you sure we shouldn’t give him some space?”

 

Hunk shook his head. “I mean, I’ve never seen him so upset, but he hates being alone for too long. He’ll have cooled off by the time we find him.”

 

“If you’re certain…”

 

“I am.”

 

They had waited only a few moments after Lance had left to go after him. Hunk had been of the opinion that they should’ve followed sooner, but Allura held back. Lance had been more than furious, he looked positively heartbroken. That had been the last thing she wanted. She just wanted him to be safe.

 

Hunk was confident that they would find Lance in his not-so-secret-anymore cavern, either rearranging the mess they’d found the night before, or gathering everything up to be moved to a more secret location. Whichever it was, Hunk was sure Lance would become lonely after too long. He always did. Hunk intended to be there when the inevitable happened.

 

Only, it seemed, someone had beaten them to the punch.

 

Allura and Hunk had just made it to the edge of the field of seaweed that surrounded the grotto when not one, but three figures emerged from the grotto, followed closely by another. The two of them froze, watching the scene intently. Even at a distance Lance’s vivid blue scales were unmistakable. But who were the mermaids he was talking to?

 

The mermaids began to swim away. Lance followed them.

 

Hunk and Allura were after him with a swift flip of their tails.

 

“Lance!” Allura called out. “Lance, where are you going? Who are these mermaids?”

 

Lance didn’t even turn to her as he said, “If you must know, these fine ladies are my new friends who are taking me to see Lotor.”

 

“Lotor?!” Hunk choked.

 

Allura paled. “You’re not serious?”

 

Lance continued to swim.

 

“Lance, you can’t go to Lotor, he can’t be trusted, he--”

 

“Why don’t you go tell my sister?!” Lance snarled. “You’re good at that.”

 

Whatever Allura was going to say next caught in her throat as she and Hunk stopped following briefly. The mermaids Lance was following hardly spared a glance at them. Allura and Hunk exchanged looks. The smart thing really would be to tell someone, they thought. But if they didn’t follow Lance now, how would they possibly be able to find him again?

 

Allura and Hunk followed, if at a distance.

 

As if determined to keep up a certain aesthetic, Lotor’s residence was within the massive skeleton of a long dead whale, reinforced here and there with coral. Lance almost hesitated before going in, but the name “silvertongue” was still ricocheting around in his head. If Lotor really could help him, Lance didn’t want to waste the opportunity. He steeled himself, and swam right into the belly of the whale.

 

“Welcome, welcome,” a silky smooth voice greeted. “It’s always an honor to receive royalty in my home.”

 

From the shadows emerged several coiling tentacles, followed shortly by a devilishly handsome cecaelia with gleaming yellow eyes. Lance shivered. There was something about the way Lotor smiled that had him on edge. He had to work to keep his tail from switching about anxiously.

 

“I understand you have a very serious problem,” Lotor said without waiting for Lance to say anything. “A dire situation--what else would it be though? After all, you’re here for my help, and help I can grant you.”

 

“What kind of help?” Lance asked slowly.

 

Lotor’s expression did not once shift from that of polite interest, but his eyes seemed to bore right through Lance. It was unnerving, to say the least.

 

“Any kind, really. I have a great many abilities at my disposal, so anything you ask for, I could very likely give you,” Lotor explained, gesturing with his tentacles instead of his hands.

 

Lance must’ve looked skeptical, because Lotor continued, “I know it sounds too good to be true, but I assure you that it is my mission in life to help poor, unfortunate souls such as yourself. Picked apart for what others want, cast out for what they don’t, but never, ever good enough… Does that sound about right?”

 

Lance didn’t reply. Lotor placed a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Trust me when I say I’ve been there,” Lotor assured him. “That’s why I do what I do.”

 

“So then,” Lance began. “What are you suggesting?”

 

Lotor grinned wide. “Well, you are fascinated by humans and everything they do. You want to convince mer-folk that they aren’t all that bad, but no one wants to listen to you, not even those closest to you.”

 

Lance frowned.

 

“Not only that,” Lotor pressed on. “But you find yourself hopelessly smitten with a human prince. As such, the only solution to your problems is to become human yourself.”

 

Lance blinked, completely caught off guard by the idea.

 

“Become human? Can you actually do that?”

 

Lotor’s eyes flashed with something between mischief and interest.

 

“I did say I could do anything.”

 

Lotor steered Lance over to a large, eerily glowing basin that looked like the claw of some monstrous creature or other. He took on a business-like tone as he began to explain what his offer entailed.

 

“Understand that this will not be a permanent solution. The potion I can make for you will turn you into a human for three days. No more, no less. Once you are human, what happens next is up to you,” Lotor said as he peered into the basin. Lance peered in to, but whatever Lotor was looking at, Lance couldn’t make sense of it.

 

“In order to remain human permanently, you have to get your prince to fall in love with you--that is, he has to kiss you before the sun sets on the third day,” Lotor went on. “It should not be any ordinary kiss, however. This must be the kiss of true love, which is the most powerful of all magicks.”

 

“True love…” Lance breathed.

 

Lotor glanced at him. “You don’t think you can manage it?”

 

“Of course I can!” Lance lied to both Lotor and himself.

 

“Very well,” Lotor said with a nod. “Should you fail to get true love’s kiss from your dear prince, I’m afraid the consequences will be… unfortunate, to say the least.”

 

“What’ll happen?”

 

Lotor leaned over the basin towards Lance, the glow casting stark shadows on his face. “If you do not get true love’s kiss before the sun sets on the third day, you will turn to seafoam.”

 

Behind him, Lance thought he heard someone yelp, but did not dare avert his eyes from Lotor. He clenched his teeth, trying to not show how unnerved he was.

 

“Turn to seafoam? Isn’t that a bit… extreme?” Lance ventured.

 

Lotor shrugged. “It’s an extreme thing to turn a merman to a human. As it is, that which belongs to the sea will always return to it, especially you of all mer-folk, little prince. Were you an ordinary merman perhaps I could find a workaround, but alas, the ocean holds you dear. Unless your prince proves that he holds you more dearly, you will turn to seafoam.”

 

Lance turned the idea over in his head, weighing his options.

 

“If I become human,” Lance started slowly. “I’ll never see my family or friends again.”

 

“Unless your becoming human convinces them to come out of hiding,” Lotor suggested. “After all, they do care about you, don’t they?”

 

Lance didn’t answer that question.

 

Lotor resumed, “Now then, regarding the matter of payment.”

 

“I didn’t bring any--”

 

“I’m not talking about any conventional method of payment,” Lotor interrupted. “Just a trifle, really, something you wouldn’t even miss.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Your voice,” Lotor said simply.

 

“My voice?” Lance repeated, touching his fingers to his throat. “But without my voice, how can I--”

 

“There are more ways to communicate than with words. And after all, you wouldn’t want that pesky silvertongue gift to trick your prince into believing himself to be in love with you, would you? That’s not true love at all.”

 

As he talked, Lotor began throwing all manner of things into the basin. Lance was entranced as the glow of the mysterious liquid changed different colors spitting and hissing and emitting bubbles of colors that were contrary to the color of the liquid.

 

“You want someone that loves you for you, right? Not some vague magical gift that you aren’t even sure is real?”

 

Lotor threw an entire jellyfish into the brew, causing it to boil threateningly.

 

“I hope you didn’t come all this way to dither. I’m very busy, you see, as my skills are in high demand.”

 

A plume of bubbles like those from a volcanic vent erupted from the basin. Lance recoiled from the heat radiating from it. Lotor pressed ever on, producing a shining scroll as though from thin air.

 

“Make your choice, little prince, go ahead, sign the scroll.”

 

A quill of fishbone manifested in the water just next to Lance. He took it unthinkingly and poised the tip just over the scroll. He hesitated.

 

“Unless, of course, you’d rather continue living your life as the host of a magical gift and nothing more.”

 

Lance squared his shoulders, his expression set.

 

He signed the scroll with a flourish.

 

Lotor snatched up the scroll, which shimmered brilliantly and then disappeared in a flash of light. The basin changed color once more as Lotor began murmuring words that Lance couldn’t quite understand or even make out. The water around them began to swirl menacingly like an eddy between currents. Lance’s heart pounded almost painfully against his ribs.

 

The chanting grew in volume, but Lance didn’t understand what Lotor was saying any more than he had before. The light followed the current of the water, blinding and dizzying. Lance wanted to shut his eyes against it, but found that he couldn’t look away.

 

Wispy tendrils curled up from the basin, looking like ghostly, unnatural hands. They mirrored the motions of Lotor’s hands as he gestured towards Lance. Lance drew away from the hands at first, every inch of his skin prickling as his instincts warned him of danger. He’d agreed to the deal though. He couldn’t back out now.

 

Lance held himself perfectly still as one hand slid into his mouth, feeling like a rush of icy cold air forcing itself into his throat. He coughed and sputtered around the sensation, but he was unable to escape it. When the hand withdrew, it held a gentle, radiant light of deep blue. Lance gasped, but no sound came out. His hands flew to his throat as the light of the basin changed once more.

 

The current closed in around him. Lance shut his eyes tightly as his entire body went too cold, and then far too hot. His tail felt like it was being ripped in two. His throat was already raw from silent screams. He drew a breath to continue screaming, only to find that he couldn’t.

 

Lance couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t swim.

 

Everything burned, Lance couldn’t make it stop. He felt hands grabbing at him, dragging him up, and the pressure all around him began to ease.

 

Lance broke the surface of the water with a ragged, silent gasp. His nose and throat burned in unfamiliar ways, and the saltwater stung at his eyes. He looked from side to side, seeing that it had been Allura and Hunk to bring him to the surface. Unthinkingly, he mouthed his thanks at them, and then remembering what he had given up, simply hugged them tightly and hoped they understood.

 

“Are you alright?” Allura asked him.

 

Lance nodded.

 

“Let’s get you to shore,” Hunk said. “You’ve only got three days to make that prince dude fall in love with you, and I bet you anything that today counts as the first day.”

 

The sun was almost at its peak. Lance made as though to push against the water with his tail, only to find extra and unfamiliar limbs where his tail should’ve been. A thrill ran through him, and Lance couldn’t wait to reach land.

 

Even with both Hunk and Allura carrying him, it took some time for them to reach the coast. Lance nodded off more than once. Several times he accidentally dipped his face into the water, only to be rudely reminded that he could no longer breathe water. As soon as they spotted land, however, Lance was completely awake and buzzing with excitement.

 

When they reached shallow waters, Lance felt the sand, but it felt completely different. Allura and Hunk set him down near some rocks and looked at him, almost expectant.

 

Lance lifted a long, slender leg out of the water. His eyes widened. Experimentally, he wiggled the toes on the foot, grinning hugely as he felt the sensation, proving that these toes, these legs, this very human body, was indeed his. Lotor had done it.

 

Lance was human.


	2. Of Walking, Running, and Dancing Around the Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Thanks so much for your patience! The rest of this story ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be, so we're getting three chapters instead of two. HOWEVER I have it all written, and it just needs some editing. If I don't post the final part tomorrow, expect it sometime within a week.
> 
> Enjoy!

Lance kicked his legs once, then twice, splashing in the water as he did. This was real! He was really human! He was immediately taken up by a fit of silent but elated giggles. He continued kicking his legs, marvelling at the sensation of having them at all. Nearby, Hunk and Allura watched him with less than enthused expressions.

“He’s really done it, hasn’t he?” Allura breathed. “He’s…”

“Human,” Hunk finished. “Allura, you don’t really think he’ll turn into seafoam, do you?”

“I don’t know, but I’m inclined to believe Lotor, much as I dislike it,” Allura huffed.

Lance’s eyes found their frowning faces, and his smile slid off his face in an instant. He tilted his head slightly, starting to move his lips in a question but stopping as soon as he remembered why that wouldn’t work. His question, however, was plain enough.

“We’re just worried, Lance,” Allura told him.

Beside her, Hunk nodded. “Yeah, I mean, if you don’t get this guy to fall in love with you and kiss you, you’ll turn to seafoam—that is, you’ll die.”

Lance waved a hand at them, gesturing at his face and smiling in what he probably thought was a suave manner. It wasn’t particularly reassuring.

“Lance, do you even know where this guy lives?” Hunk pressed.

Lance froze for an instant, but quickly recovered, waving his hands around airily and mouthing the words he was trying to say again. Suffice to say, he did not seem nearly as concerned as the other two. Allura scowled.

“This is ridiculous!” She exclaimed. “You should never have made a deal with a sea witch in the first place! I’m going to find a way to reverse this immediately, and so help me—don’t shake your head at me! This is your life we’re talking about, how can you be so careless about it?!”

Lance gaped like a fish out of water. He shook his head again, his blue eyes going wide and seeming to plead with Allura. Allura recoiled at the pang of guilt that zipped through her, from her heart all the way down to her delicate tail fins. Certainly with her tenacity she could probably find a way to reverse this. Her kingdom had the best kept records of all underwater magic, after all. But then, Lance’s eyes seemed to say, what good would that do? Lance would return to a life he was discontent with, doomed to wonder about a chance he hadn’t been allowed to take. Maybe Allura thought it foolhardy and far too risky, but it meant something far more to Lance, something that Allura might never comprehend, especially if she took this away from him.

Allura sighed. “Alright, alright, I’ll—I won’t undo this immediately. But Lance, please understand, you’re one of my dearest friends, and I can’t bear the thought of losing you forever. Please, at least let me look for a way… just in case? I won’t tell anyone what’s happening this time, I promise. My honor as a princess.”

Lance looked away for a moment, deliberating carefully. When he finally looked back at her, it was with a small but resolute nod. Allura sighed again, this time smiling.

“Thank you, Lance. I promise I’ll be back as soon as possible. Hunk, you’ll stay with him, won’t you?”

Hunk blinked. “How is that even a question? Of course I’ll stay with him!”

“And so will I!” piped a new voice.

The three of them whipped around in alarm, afraid they’d been caught by some human or other. Thankfully it wasn’t just any old human; it was Pidge! Perched on a rock and peering very curiously at Lance, they looked only marginally surprised, but also mildly mischievous. They seemed proud to have snuck up on the merfolk.

“So, you managed to get yourself a pair of legs,” they started slowly.

Lance nodded eagerly, mouth moving leagues ahead of the fastest human ship before he could stop himself. Pidge blinked.

“And… you can’t talk? Wow, two upgrades in one day, I’m impressed.” At Lance’s resulting scowl, they laughed and continued, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. But seriously, what on earth is going on?”

Much to everyone’s surprise, it was Allura who explained the situation to Pidge. “He traded his voice to a sea witch for legs. He has to get a human, that human he rescued the other day, to fall in love with him—“

“And kiss him!” Hunk added.

“And kiss him,” Allura amended with a nod. “In three days. Otherwise he’ll turn to seafoam.”

Pidge sputtered. “What?! Lance, what were you thinking?!”

Lance made as though to blow bubbles, only to end up huffing indignantly. He crossed his arms and turned away from Pidge.

“I think he’s done having this conversation,” Hunk translated.

“Fine, fine,” Pidge said. “You guys are lucky I know Keith.”

That got Lance’s attention again. He whirled around with a huge grin on his face. His wide eyes were pleading once more, and Pidge pointedly looked away from him. There was something about his ocean eyes that was decidedly still merm-ish, something that was easy to pass over when he still had a tail, but that seemed startling in the face of a human.

“You don’t have to ask! Of course I’m going to help you!” they insisted. “First thing’s first: you need clothes.”

~*~

To any casual onlooker, the younger prince looked completely recovered from the disastrous shipwreck that had almost claimed his life. How resilient, they praised, how strong. Not that he heard any of these praises of course. No, Keith was deaf to a great many things in the days following the incident, as was apparent to those particular few that were close to him. His thoughts were far more pleasantly occupied.

A gentle touch to his cheek.

Words of longing, spoken so softly Keith could hardly hear them over the waves.

And when he had opened his eyes to the harsh morning light, the bluest eyes he had ever seen were looking at him, sparkling as the ocean might on a clear, sunny day.

Suffice to say, Keith had been dazzled and enraptured, only for those eyes to disappear a moment after he’d seen them. Part of him wanted to believe it had been a dream, if only so he could move on with his life. The rest of his mind, however, was all too convinced it had been real. Someone had rescued him that night. Far from the shore, where the ship had gone down in a violent conflagration, someone had plucked him from the waters and brought him to safety.

At the very least, Keith would’ve liked to have thanked them.

Yet no one had seen anyone on the beach where Keith supposedly washed up. Occasionally Keith caught a knowing gleam in Pidge’s eye, but as soon as he blinked it was gone. Shiro insisted that Keith’s head was just a little addled, what with the explosion and then however much salt water Keith might’ve accidentally swallowed.

So for all that Keith had his suspicions, he kept quiet in the days following the incident. If he took more walks along the shore at odd hours of the day, no one made any mention of it. One gray morning, just as the sky was touched with the barest hint of light, Keith thought he heard something behind the rocks. It was a small thing, almost like a sob, but when he called out, no one answered. He turned to his dog, his constant companion in these days, and sighed.

“I must be losing my mind, Kosmo,” he said.

The dog tilted his head, as if to ask, “Are you so certain?”

Keith was not at all certain, but he was definitely not accomplishing anything by moping about on the beach. He hadn’t gotten but an hour or two of sleep. Some decent sleep might do him some good. He trudged back to the castle, almost having to drag Kosmo back at first--the silly dog was insistent on tramping about in the shallow waters they’d been walking by, for whatever reason.

Keith managed only a few solid hours of sleep before someone was knocking at his door. Something about Shiro wanting him present for the citizen petitions of the day. Kosmo was all energy with springs in his paws, as though he hadn’t stayed up the entire night with Keith. His bright energy got Keith to smile, so Keith couldn’t find it in himself to be annoyed in the slightest.

His first thought had been to head down to the kitchens to grab a quick bite to eat. Petitioning hours usually ran long, and it was one of the dullest duties Keith had to attend to as a prince. A few snacks would go a long way in helping him make it through the day. Keith was quite set in his path, stomach already growling, until he spotted Pidge acting quite suspiciously.

Pidge was the youngest child of one of the court diplomats (their other parent also worked for the royal family, as an herbalist), only a couple years younger than Keith himself. The two of them got on quite well, but Keith always got the impression that Pidge knew things he didn’t. More than once he wondered if they were in training to become a royal spy or something of the sort. They would often disappear for hours at a time, returning with a knowing look and sometimes flipping some incredibly old, incredibly rare coin or other. Not once had Keith ever been able to wrangle an explanation regarding where the coins had come from out of them (at least, not an explanation he believed).

As such, when Keith spotted Pidge ducked behind a corner clutching a bundle of cloth, glancing this way and that to make sure they weren’t being followed, Keith decided there and then to follow them. Perhaps part of him hoped that whatever grand secret they were keeping had something to do with his mysterious rescuer. Either way, his curiosity had reached its limit. Whatever Pidge was hiding, Keith was going to find it.

Unfortunately, Pidge apparently had much practice in the art of not being followed. Keith’s status as a prince didn’t help him much either. Once or twice people stopped to stare at his odd behavior, careful as he was being to not be noticed by Pidge. Kosmo behaved himself all the while, staying just behind Keith as they stole after Pidge on their mystery errand. Keith thought he’d have an easier time of it once they left the castle, but on the contrary, he lost Pidge almost immediately. He’d followed them down the path towards the shore when they’d simply vanished.

Keith huffed. “They must be able to turn invisible or something.”

He turned to make his way back to the castle, calling for Kosmo to follow. His dear companion, however, had other ideas. Kosmo’s head perked up just as Keith made to return, his entire body freezing as he sniffed something in the air. Keith knew what was going to happen an instant before it did.

“Don’t--”

Kosmo did anyways. He took off like a bullet down the beach, leaving Keith to shout and straggle far behind him. Every few seconds he would pause to look back at Keith, as though considering whether he should listen to him or not. Every time he decided against it, and just before Keith could catch up to him, he’d sprint away again, tail wagging in huge circles all the while.

“Well,” Keith wheezed as he tramped through the sand. “At least one of us is having fun.”

~*~

Pidge returned red-faced and panting. Allura had already left, leaving Hunk to watch as Lance attempted to take his first shaky steps on his human legs. It hadn’t been going well.

“Almost got caught,” they gasped. “By Keith of all people.”

Lance perked up at that, eyebrows shooting up as he gestured with his hands towards himself repeatedly. Pidge took a moment to catch their breath.

“Much as I know you’d like to see Keith as soon as possible, and as much as I’d like to get you two together sooner rather than later, I don’t think you’d make a very good impression like this,” they explained.

Lance repeated the motion he’d been making with more energy.

“Yeah, I’m a little confused too,” Hunk said. “What exactly is the reason you couldn’t bring Keith sooner rather than later?”

Pidge rolled their eyes. “Well, humans cover their entire bodies with clothes, first of all. It’s considered pretty rude and shocking to run around naked. Not to mention, Lance can’t even walk right yet. You want to make a good first impression, don’t you?”

Lance exhaled sharply through his nose, and then nodded.

“Good, then let’s get you dressed.”

A few moments later found Lance dressed in plain pants and a loose, flowing shirt. He marvelled at the sensation of cloth against his skin, pulling at the clothing here and there at places where it sat a little less comfortably. He was seated on a rock, not yet able to stand on his own two legs.

“Alright,” Pidge sighed. “Now that that ordeal is out of the way, let’s get you walking--”

They stopped abruptly. A dog could be heard barking not too far off, accompanied by the shouting of a very familiar voice. Pidge looked down the beach, then back at Lance. His eyes were wide and curious, and just a tad concerned. Pidge looked for Hunk, but he had already hidden himself. Panicking, Pidge ended up diving behind another rock, just as Kosmo barrelled around the bend and made a beeline for Lance.

Lance had no idea how to respond. The last time he’d met Kosmo, he’d been nowhere near this rambunctious. It was a little overwhelming, if Lance was honest. It didn’t help that Pidge had decided to hide themself, in Lance’s greatest moment of need. Kosmo jumped excitedly at Lance. Lance’s hands fluttered nervously, trying to pet the beast, but Kosmo just wouldn’t stay still! The silly creature clawed at the rock, desperately trying to get up to greet Lance as he had the first time they’d met.

“Kosmo! Come here, you--!”

Lance felt his breath leave him as Keith rounded the bend and froze, eyes locking with Lance’s. Everything around them screeched to a halt. The waves seemed to hold themselves just before crashing against the shore, suspended in the moment as the two of them were. Even the gulls overhead did not dare cry out.

“Oh,” Keith gasped quietly, setting time to it’s natural course once more. 

Kosmo bounded back to Keith, shaking him from his silent reverie. He’d been staring, he realized.

“Uh, sorry about my dog, he’s a little excitable,” Keith apologized to the young man who had yet to say a word.

He thought perhaps he was also a little excitable, but something seemed familiar about the man seated on the rock, especially as Keith stepped towards him. Especially familiar was a pair of startling blue eyes that seemed to draw him in like a riptide. Keith was utterly helpless against them. The young man leaned forward, grinning all the while.

“Do I… know you?”

The young man nodded eagerly, and Keith’s heart leapt into his throat. He instinctively took the man’s hands in his, hardly able to speak for excitement.

“I—it’s you! You’re the one! The one that saved me! I knew you were real! What’s your name?!”

The young man moved his mouth, but no sound came out. Both Keith and him deflated considerably. A whisper of words carried over the waves and brushed past Keith’s cheek, the barest memory of a touch reminding him of what he’d seen. Keith looked away, and let the young man’s hands slip out of his.

“Oh,” he sighed. “Then, you can’t be who I’m looking for.”

The young man huffed, and Keith looked back up at him. His eyebrows were knit together in consternation, arms crossed in such a way that made it look like he was hugging himself. It made him look small and vulnerable, and Keith noticed other things—the mess of wind-whipped curls atop his head, the bags underneath his eyes, and the redness of his lower lip (as though he’d been biting at it).

Keith was about to ask the young man if he was alright, when his eyes snapped up again like a crack of lightning, and he began gesturing wildly with his hands, first to his legs in a wiggling motion, then tapping against his throat and then waving his hand away. Keith was completely lost. The man exhaled sharply and began moving his hands with more energy, pointing agitatedly towards the ocean, such that he nearly fell off the rock he was seated on.

Instead of falling to the ground, however, the man fell right into Keith’s waiting arms. Keith had held them out without thinking, and held tighter when the young man struggled to stand on his own. Their eyes met again, and once more Keith was taken by how the entirety of the ocean seemed to be encapsulated within this stranger’s eyes. He blinked out of his stupor before he was staring for too long.

“You’ve--you must’ve really been through something,” Keith commented. The young man nodded slowly, not once breaking eye contact. “Why don’t you come back with me? We can help you out, get you back on your feet again?”

Here the stranger averted his eyes with a coy smile, and nodded again. Keith held tight around the stranger’s waist, while the young man put an arm across Keith’s shoulders. This would definitely raise some eyebrows, Keith considered, but what else was he supposed to do? No, this mysterious (beautiful) stranger needed help, and Keith was more than able (and willing).

In the meantime, whatever Pidge had been up to had been completely driven from Keith’s mind.

From behind the rocks, Pidge and Hunk watched the fated first meeting go surprisingly well, considering. They exchanged gleeful looks with Lance when he looked back at them with an elated smile.

“Why’d you hide from Keith? I thought you knew him?” Hunk asked as soon as Lance and Keith were out of earshot.

“I panicked,” they said honestly.

Hunk hummed. “That’s fair. And anyways, I suppose if you ended up introducing them, you might have to do more explaining than you want.”

“No kidding,” Pidge replied with a nod. “Keith’s been onto me off and on for years. Always thinks I’m up to something. I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m in training to be a court spy or something. Not that that’d be a bad idea.”

“Speaking of bad ideas, do you think it’d be a bad idea to tell Keith about all this anyways?”

Pidge blinked. “What, about mermaids and everything?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Pidge, if Lance doesn’t get Keith to fall in love with him in three days, he turns to seafoam! He’d essentially… you know…” Hunk trailed off, a heavy silence settling over him.

“Much as I want to,” Pidge began slowly. “And as much as I think that Keith would be willing to help, I don’t think it’d do us any good. He has to fall in love with Lance, right? Something like that… I don’t know if it can be forced, no matter how much you want it.”

Hunk said nothing in reply, and Pidge felt their heart twist painfully. Lance was a good friend of theirs, but Hunk had known Lance far longer and far more intimately than Pidge. To only be able to stand by (or float by, part of Pidge’s mind considered), while his dearest friend put his life on the line for love… Pidge didn’t even want to imagine. Pidge stood from where they’d been hiding, their expression set.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t help them along though.”

~*~

To say that Allura’s return was met calmly and with a reasonable level of poise would be a bold-faced lie.

In fact, she was swarmed by Lance’s entire family before she’d even crossed the threshold of their palace. They were beside themselves with worry, and his niece and nephew in particular were in hysterics. Most concerning of all was Veronica, who looked as though she hadn’t slept for days, though it had hardly been one since Lance left. Once the delegation that had accompanied Allura was assured of her safety, she was ushered into a private sitting room with Veronica.

There was silence between them at first. Veronica slumped into a seat, exhaustion weighing as heavy as the ocean at the bottom of a trench on her. Her position was not so different from Allura’s, being first in line to rule their respective kingdoms, but unlike Allura, she had already taken over many of the responsibilities that would be expected of her as queen. Add that to ensuring that her siblings attended to their duties as well, and her position was most assuredly more stressful than Allura’s.

“I messed up, didn’t I?”

Allura was taken aback by the question, but quickly moved to reassure the other princess. “No! Well, perhaps you were a bit harsh. After all, as far as I understand it took him years to build his collection, and to simply get rid of it all--”

Allura stopped when a perplexed expression crossed Veronica’s face.

“What are you talking about?”

“His collection. In the cove. It’s all gone,” Allura said. Veronica still looked confused. “It wasn’t you?”

“No, of course not! Collecting human items, that’s harmless, although he does have a tendency to let it get in the way of his duties as a prince… I would never do that to him. He’s my brother.”

“I see,” Allura mused, her mind alight with suspicion.

A beat of silence rippled through the waters.

“Do you know where Lance is?”

Allura nearly choked on some bubbles. “No, I--Hunk and I, when we went looking for him, we thought we might find him faster if we split up. I searched as long as I could, and then I decided to check back here to see if he’d returned on his own.”

Veronica hummed, slouching back into her seat and looking utterly defeated. Allura did not envy the pressure Veronica was under, and wished more than anything that she could assure her that her baby brother was well and alive. But she’d promised Lance.

“As it is,” Allura continued with a little more confidence. “A pressing matter has arisen that I must attend to as soon as possible. I hate to leave you during such a time--”

“Please, don’t worry yourself over it,” Veronica insisted. “We’ll send word as soon as we find Lance and Hunk.”

She rose from her seat and embraced Allura tightly. Allura could practically feel the stress in her tense form. She didn’t want to leave Veronica and the rest of Lance’s family like this. But then, would they be any less worried if they knew the truth.

“Is there anything I can do before I leave?” Allura asked.

Veronica considered the offer with tired eyes. Though they were the same color as Lance’s, they were quite different. Even when she wasn’t under the weight of the entire ocean, Veronica’s eyes had a sort of sharpness to them that was leagues away from the rolling liveliness of Lance’s. Now she seemed dull at the edges.

“Do you know the humans Lance knows?” she asked suddenly.

Allura recoiled, but answered honestly, “No!--that is, not as well as him.”

A slight pause.

“But I think Lance may be right,” she added.

Veronica blinked, clearly surprised. “What do you mean?”

“I think… there may be humans who are not as dangerous as we might think. Humans that can be negotiated with,” Allura elaborated.

“And the poachers of the past? You think they don’t exist anymore?”

Allura shook her head. “It may be that humans are not so different from merfolk. After all, there are plenty of creatures under the sea, merfolk included, that would do us harm without even the slightest provocation.”

Veronica did not reply. Instead she straightened, trying to once more look the part of crown princess of her kingdom. Allura knew firsthand just how exhausting that could be.

“Well, don’t let me keep you. You said you had an urgent matter to attend to?” Veronica reminded her.

“Yes, thank you,” Allura replied with an appropriate bow of her head. Then, just before she opened the door, “I wish you the best of luck. I hope everything is resolved soon.”

“You hope, or you know?”

Allura froze, trying to keep herself composed. She met Veronica’s eyes, sharp and decisive once more, with as much confidence as she could muster.

“There are a great many things I do not know,” she said. “But that I intend to find out.”

Veronica eyed Allura suspiciously. Allura remained resolute.

Finally, Veronica sighed. “Very well. Have a safe journey home.”

With that, Allura swiftly took her leave. The longer she stayed around Veronica the more likely it was that Veronica would wrangle the truth out of her. That would not do at all. As it was, Allura thought, she would likely find out in three day’s time anyways.

Three days, she contemplated on her way home. To Lance’s family, it would no doubt feel like an eternity. To Allura, it was not nearly enough time at all.

~*~

“So,” Pidge mused, sliding beside Keith as he stood gazing out a window. “I hear you made a new friend.”

Keith snorted. “You could say that.”

“I also hear he’s incredibly attractive.”

Keith broke from his brooding to give Pidge a puzzled look. “Since when do you care about whether people are attractive or not?”

“I don’t, that’s just what I heard,” Pidge said with a shrug. “Word travels fast, and there’s nothing servants love more than some juicy gossip.”

“And there’s nothing you love more than talking to people,” Keith drawled.

“No, but people can be really careless. They just want to talk, nevermind who’s listening. What no one seems to agree on is why you decided to bring him home.”

Keith groaned, bumping his head lightly against the glass. “I already told Shiro, I just felt like he needed some help, and I was right there, so I figured, why not?”

“Fair enough.”

Keith scowled. “That’s what Shiro said, and I know neither of you mean it.”

Pidge shrugged again. “It’s not everyday a prince brings home a beautiful man, but the last time that happened there was a marriage not long after.”

“That--that’s different! Adam was a visiting noble from the more inland part of the kingdom and--!”

“And then I never left,” a third voice piped.

Keith didn’t even bother to look. “You here to interrogate me too?”

“No, as much as I’d like to. Takashi won’t shut up about it,” Adam said, sidling up to Keith’s other side. “Dinner is going to be ready soon. Will you be joining us, Pidge?”

“If I’m invited.”

Keith prayed that Adam said no. He was already surrounded as it was, he didn’t need Shiro added to the mix. And they already had one guest as it was, and they generally liked to keep dinner a private affair.

“Of course, you’re always invited, Pidge.”

Keith groaned. Usually he could count on Adam being on his side for a lot of things, but for all that he said he wasn’t interested, Adam was clearly burning with just as much curiosity as everyone in the palace. As they all shuffled off to dinner, Keith idly wondered how long it would be before the entire kingdom was circulating rumors of an engagement.

Shiro was already seated when they entered the private dining room, delighted to see that Pidge would be joining them. Adam took his place beside his husband, and they exchanged a look that to Keith seemed to say that Adam had been as successful as Shiro in wrangling any interesting information from him. Not that there was anything “interesting” to be found out. Sure, maybe he’d thought that at first this perfect stranger had been the one that had rescued Keith not so long ago, and maybe Keith was still thinking longingly of a lingering touch against his cheek, but that had nothing to do with--

There was a shuffling at the door. It was ajar, and just outside a servant stood, speaking in an encouraging tone to someone just out of Keith’s sight. Then, a tentative figure stepped through the door.

Keith had to remind himself to breathe. It was the stranger, freshly washed and dressed in one of Keith’s own deep red coats (he had told the servants to fit the stranger with some of his own clothes, and hadn’t thought anything of it at the time). The vivid scarlet that Keith favored was a striking contrast to the young man’s eyes, and made them seem more prominent than ever. For a second time, Keith reminded himself to breathe, and to not stare.

“Uh, you look--you look great,” Keith stammered, for all that he’d been trying his hardest to remain composed.

The young man smiled bashfully, and Keith led him to the table, pointedly not looking at anyone else as he did. He didn’t need to look to know that Shiro and Pidge were struggling to contain their grinning, and Adam, far more composed than either of them, was simply staring intently.

Pidge caught Lance’s eye and offered him a subtle wave. Lance smiled at them, feeling as though he were floating amidst the most amiable current. His steps were far more steady now than they had been only a few hours ago, and most importantly, he was here, with Keith! Lance was certain that if he still had his voice he’d be giggling out of sheer elation.

“So, I know you can’t speak, but is there any way you can give us your name?” Shiro asked politely of Lance.

Lance considered for a moment, glancing at Pidge in what he hoped was a subtle fashion. They made no indication that they would say anything. It seemed he was on his own for this one. He mimed thrusting forward with a lance, hoping that humans had them too, but no one at the table seemed to get it (“Pike?” Keith guessed. Lance shook his head vigorously). Pidge remained conspicuously silent all the while.

“I’m… sure we’ll figure it out sooner or later,” Shiro assured him. “It just feels rude to not be able to refer to you by name.”

“Speaking of which, we haven’t told him ours,” Adam pointed out.

“Oh!” Shiro gasped. “Of course.”

Introductions were made quickly. Lance nodded at every name, even Pidge’s, in what he hoped was a polite manner. It irked him that he couldn’t return the pleasantries; indeed, if he still had his voice he might’ve laughed at how important it all suddenly seemed to him, to be courteous and princely. He wondered distantly if Veronica would laugh too.

Idle chatter descended upon their small party as they waited for food. Lance, with no voice, was left to take in every little thing that surrounded him. Everything was so very different from his underwater home. On the table there was already an assortment of items he only half recognized. 

Directly in front of him was a fork, which he knew, and in the middle of the table, a very curious item that he only half-recognized. He had a feeling that Pidge wasn’t going to explain what it was in front of everyone else, but that was alright. With three prongs to the elegantly crafted item, with sockets in each prong, Lance was certain he could guess what it was for. He picked up the fork in front of him first, and with unshakeable certainty placed it right in the center socket. That’s what he did with the one he’d had in his collection, anyways.

He was very quickly aware of the silence that had descended upon the room. Everyone was staring at him. His face was burning as he quickly removed the fork from where he’d put it, placing it carefully where it had been. Lance was just wishing he could disappear until a sudden peal of laughter shattered the silence. Across from him, Keith was hiding his face in his hands, shoulders shaking.

From the end of the table, Shiro grinned. “You know, I don’t think I’ve seen him laugh this hard since… when was the last time he laughed this hard?”

“Sorry, sorry, I don’t mean to laugh at you,” Keith assured Lance. “I just--that was--”

He wasn’t able to finish his sentence, but that was perfectly fine with Lance. He beamed, proud to be the reason that Keith was laughing so freely for the first time in too long. In the meantime, he hoped that Pidge would tell remind him what the item was for later. Funny as it was in retrospect, Lance didn’t want to spend the next few days making a fool of himself. He had more important things to do, after all.

“I don’t think he’s from around here,” Pidge mentioned lightly as dinner was brought out to them. “Hey, Keith, maybe you should show him around town tomorrow.”

“What--”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Adam said before Keith could protest.

“It’s been a while since you’ve been anywhere but around the castle and on the beach,” Shiro agreed. At Keith’s scathing look, he added, “You really thought I wouldn’t notice?”

Keith ignored his brother and turned to Lance. “What do you say? Would you like a tour of the capital town tomorrow? It’s not anything spectacular, but it’s home.”

Lance nodded eagerly, certain that what Keith referred to as home would be nothing short of marvelous. Keith smiled, a sight that made Lance feel warmer than he thought possible. If only, he thought, the deal had been for Lance to fall in love with Keith, then his humanity would be assured. 

As it was, Lance insisted to himself that there was no point in lingering on “what-ifs”. Not when there was some very intriguing human cuisine before him, anyways.

~*~

Pidge didn’t linger after dinner. They weren’t sure how much more of Lance and Keith mooning over each other they could handle, and anyways, they had important information to relay. As soon as they were able (and making sure that Keith was lost in Lance’s eyes beforehand), they slipped out with only a quiet word of thanks to the elder prince and his husband.

With the sun going down, activity around the castle was winding down amongst the upper classes. For the servants the work was as steady as always. Stoking up fires to keep away the chill of the coming night, clearing away dinner messes or bringing fresh dinners for those who kept later hours, and cleaning away the mess of the day. None of them had a thought to spare for Pidge as they snuck into the kitchens for a sack of food and then made their way out of the castle.

They took a smaller, side exit that led to a quaint garden that had a marvelous view of the ocean. They made a mental note to suggest to Keith that he ought to take Lance here. In the meantime, they pushed through the meticulously trimmed hedges to find a small trail that they would’ve missed if they hadn’t been looking for it. It led down the steep hill that the castle was settled on, treacherous and overgrown and dangerous to take in low light. Pidge followed it resolutely as it turned sharply to parallel the shore. It led them to a shady cove where the castle was hanging over the shore, where the ocean had eroded the land over time.

They glanced around, ever suspicious.

“Hunk?”

A moment or two passed. The only sound was the constant roll of ocean waves. Pidge sat themself on a rock, and waited. A light breeze swept through the secret cove that had long been Pidge’s personal hideaway. They breathed it in gratefully, tasting the salt and revelling in the cool air against their skin.

“Pidge!” a harsh whisper called.

They opened their eyes. Hunk’s face was just barely peeking out of the water, but his golden tail could be seen behind him. The water was too shallow for him to be completely submerged.

“How’d it go?” he asked.

Pidge grinned. “They were all over the idea. Keith and Lance will be spending the majority of the day together tomorrow. As it is, Keith is already smitten. He’s already half in love with Lance and he doesn’t even know it.”

“Good,” Hunk breathed. “I was worried.”

“So was I, but looking at them, I don’t think we have anything to worry about,” Pidge assured him.

“Oh no, I’ll be worrying every single moment until they kiss,” Hunk insisted, his tail jerking sharply behind him. “Part of me is wondering if Lotor lied to Lance. Or if maybe Lance can only stay human as long as Keith loves him. What if they kiss but it’s not true love? What if it’s just passionate infatuation? What if--”

“Hunk,” Pidge cut in gently. “We could go around in circles all night with what-if’s. Things are going well so far.”

“I know,” Hunk whined, blowing bubbles in the water.

“In the meantime, let’s think of a plan for the third day,” Pidge suggested, brandishing the sack of food they’d brought with them.

~*~

The sun had long since set on Allura’s home, but she was still awake and elbow deep in the archives of her home castle, poring over tablet after tablet. Reading the tablets was delicate and tedious work. That which was merfolk of the past had wanted to record was carved into sturdy stone that was known to withstand the constant whims of the water for many ages. The tablets Allura held, however, were ancient. She made a note to have some of the archivists re-carve the tablets.

For now, however, she felt with careful fingers along the tablets that were supposedly records of lost magic. She’d been through several such tablets already. None of them had anything she was looking for, only tales of mermaids who had sung humans to their death in retaliation for their violent poaching practices. Fascinating as that had been, it was not what Allura needed.

“Our most revered Princess Elanil is thus revealed to have been blessed with the silvertongue gift,” the current tablet read. It wasn’t the first time she’d come across a mention of one of her own ancestors having the silvertongue gift. 

Allura continued reading. “But even before she could use it, it was taken from her by the wretched hands of Man. Having taken to the surface in search of vengeance for her most beloved People, our Princess sought to drown Men with her own hands. Those very same Men caught her with their hands before she had uttered a word and cut out her tongue, silencing our dear Princess forevermore.”

Allura recoiled, and almost set the tablet down. Her hands, however, unconsciously moved down to the next line.

“Robbed though she was, our Princess was determined to seek her vengeance tenfold. Her eyes gleamed with the force of a storm at sea and her strength was double that. With her sheer tenacity alone, Princess Elanil drowned a count of Men that shall be directly recorded…”

Allura set the tablet aside and held her head in her hands. She didn’t even know why she was bothering with anything about the silvertongue, unless it was to discern what Lotor could possibly want with it. As it was, mentions of the silvertongue were vague at best, and grossly exaggerated at worst. One account had it that the silvertongue the truest expression of the ocean itself, and those who possessed such a gift could do more than sway people to their will. Poetic as such accounts were, they were utterly useless to Allura.

She was just reaching for the next tablet when, through the silence, a voice spoke, “Allura?”

She whipped her head up, and saw in the dim light of a single bioluminescent lamp her father, King Alfor. His forehead was creased with worry.

“I had heard you had returned, but I wasn’t sure I should believe it,” he commented airily. “After all, why should my dear daughter return without even saying hello to her parents?”

Allura shrugged sheepishly, and then swam over to hug her father tightly, a soft apology on her lips. Alfor smiled kindly as he returned the embrace.

“Your mother is worried. We heard what’s happening with our neighbors,” he said. “She thinks you distraught.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to worry you or mother,” she replied.

“Tell me then, what are you up to?” he asked abruptly. He glanced at the tablets scattered on the table Allura had been sitting at. “The silvertongue gift?”

Allura sought to keep her posture natural. Not too composed, but not too relaxed. “Well, you see—it’s just that—the reason Lance was so upset as to leave in the first place was because of the pressure put on him as one in possession of the silvertongue gift. I thought that if I could help him understand it, he might be able to control it, and then perhaps he might not feel so overburdened, is all.”

Alfor raised an eyebrow. Allura knew he suspected there was something more than what she was saying, and she knew he knew. Thankfully, he seemed to sense that she couldn’t and wouldn’t come forward with the truth so easily. All the same, Allura wasn’t sure if she was grateful for the fact that he didn’t press for the truth or not.

“And what have you found?” he asked instead.

Allura huffed. “Nothing of use. It’s all tales of those who supposedly possessed the gift themselves, never anything about what exactly it is or how one uses it.”

“Really?” Alfor inquired. “I thought for sure there was something about the nature of the silvertongue gift in here somewhere…”

He moved to looked through the tablets Allura had collected while Allura stared, wide-eyed. “You’ve read about the silvertongue?”

“My dear, I must’ve read everything in this library at least twice. Surely your mother has told you before.”

Allura cracked a wry smile as several memories resurfaced. “She may have mentioned it once or twice.”

Alfor chuckled as he continued his search for that particular tablet. He found it after only a moment, holding it up as he read it aloud.

“To call it the silvertongue is something of a misnomer,” he read. “For it is not in the tongue that the gift resides, though that seems to be where it makes itself most apparent. Indeed the silvertongue gift is believed by a few to be a physical manifestation of the ocean itself—“

“I read that already,” Allura interrupted with a sigh. “But that’s the only source that claims that. It’s a romantic view of the magic, certainly, but without evidence—“

“Who’s to say there isn’t evidence?” Alfor asked with a knowing smile.

Allura frowned. “I’ve read all of these tablets, this claim is just a story!”

“If you insist,” Alfor relented, setting down the tablet. “But remember my dear, while many stories regarding magic have their roots in misunderstanding, a special few are rooted in truth. It’s just a matter of finding where that truth is.”

With that he pressed a kiss to her forehead, reminding her not to stay up too late. She assured him that she wouldn’t, although they both seemed to know that was a lie. Allura simply didn’t have time. Realistically she knew she couldn’t stay awake for three days straight, but neither could she waste too much time on sleep. She had to find an answer, and she was certain by then that it didn’t lie in any stories about the silvertongue. But if it wasn’t in stories about magic, then where could it possibly be?

Once her father left, Allura turned back to the tablets on the table, and spied one she didn’t remember taking down from the shelves. Curious she took it in her hands.

“Magic and Alchemy,” it read. “Differences, similarities, and why they both became likened to myth.”

~*~

The dawn of the second day broke bright and beautiful over the ocean. The stranger was already awake when Keith peeked in the room he was staying in, on the balcony admiring the sunrise. It was different, seeing this handsome stranger in such a peaceful moment. Normally he was brimming with energy and unable to sit still. Keith found it charming, but this, too, was endearing. From just the right angle, Keith could see the stranger’s eyes, settled like the sea before them.

“Good morning,” Keith finally greeted, startling the stranger from his reverie. Keith chuckled. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

The young man waved a hand at him, and then gestured for Keith to join him. Keith did so gladly.

“Sleep well?” Keith asked. The stranger nodded, even as he yawned. “Good. We’ve got a bit of a day ahead of us, although I will have to be present for petitioning for at least an hour this morning, since I wasn’t present yesterday. I hope that’s alright.”

The man nodded once more, and then tapped his chest as he tilted his head. Keith raised his eyebrows.

“You want to sit through petitions?”

Another fervent nod.

“Are you sure? They’re pretty boring, I can hardly stand them myself…”

The stranger was resolute. He wanted to join Keith. Keith, for his part, had no complaints, he just didn’t want his surprise guest to be bored to death before they went out to the town. As eager as he seemed about everything in the castle, Keith was looking forward to seeing how he reacted to seeing the charming town just beyond the castle gates. In the meantime, however--

“Any other hints towards your name?” Keith inquired.

The stranger once more made that thrusting motion he’d made the night before, calling to mind a sort of polearm weapon. Keith had already tried Pike, which had apparently been wrong, but he was certain that “spear” or “halberd” couldn’t be his name. If there were any other possibilities, they escaped Keith. The stranger huffed. Apparently that was the only hint he had, and Keith just wasn’t getting it.

“Sorry, I’m sure I’ll get it eventually,” Keith apologized. “Maybe there’s something I can call you in the meantime?”

The stranger shrugged, but did not seem wholly opposed to the idea. Keith hummed and tapped his chin thoughtfully.

“How about… Blue?” he suggested, reaching out the brush away an errant strand of hair from the stranger’s face. “For your eyes.”

Said eyes widened, then looked away. The stranger smiled, nodding demurely.

“Alright then, Blue,” Keith said. “Let’s get going. Those petitioners aren’t going to listen to themselves, after all.”

Half an hour later, Keith walked into the throne room, Blue not far behind. Tittering nobles peered curiously at the handsome stranger, gossiping behind their delicate silk fans so rapidly that it sound like the ocean wind had made it inside. Keith paid them no heed, and hoped that Blue did the same. A quick glance told him there was no need to worry. Dressed in a well-fitted, deep blue vest over a flowing white shirt, Blue held himself like a prince, looking forward as though the nobles that lined the walls simply didn’t exist.

Thusly reassured, Keith swiftly took his seat beside Shiro. Blue, without even a single questioning glance, stood to the side. He stood tall and kept his hands clasped behind his back. Were his appearance not so sudden, no one would’ve questioned that he belonged. It was immensely intriguing to Keith. Just who was Blue?

Keith had no time to ponder the question as the first petitioner stepped forward. By his looks, he seemed to be a fisherman, his aged face wind-weathered and sun-kissed. He gripped his hat nervously as he paid the proper respects to the royals. Behind him were several more fishermen, looking just as anxious as the one that spoke on their behalf.

“Your Highnesses,” he began in a tremulous voice. “I’ve always been a reasonable man, a man of logic. Never set much store by superstition, anyone’ll tell you.”

Behind him, several of his companions nodded.

“But?” Shiro prompted.

The fisherman seemed reluctant to continue. “But… As of late, the waters, thereabouts on the eastern side of the peninsula, they’ve become dangerous for us.”

Shiro leaned forward. “How so?”

“That’s just the thing your Highness, is that no one can say for certain,” the fisherman explained. “Our folks go out for the day, and their boats come back, but they don’t. And if they do, it’s by the grace of the currents, because they’ll come back dead.”

A hush fell over the room, followed by the insistent rush of chatter as the nobles appraised this dramatic turn of events. The sound was not unlike the crash of waves just outside. Keith, too, found his interest piqued. His first thought was that raiding parties might be coming over from the neighboring kingdom, and then he considered the possibility of pirates. But the fisherman had said that the ships had returned.

“Of the ships that returned,” Keith began. “How many were stripped of their valuables?”

“None, your Highness,” the fisherman answered.

“So then likely not pirates or raiding parties,” Shiro muttered so that only Keith could hear.

“If I may, your Highnesses,” the fisherman pressed at the insistence of his companions. “Us folk think we may know that what’s killing us, though I fear you’ll think me daft for it.”

“I don’t like to discount any possibility, no matter how slim. Let’s hear it,” Shiro commanded.

The fisherman gripped his hat like a lifeline. “Merfolk, your Highness.”

Several nobles laughed loudly. Keith glanced at Blue, thinking he might laugh too. On the contrary, Blue’s face was suddenly ashen, his eyes wide and his lips pressed tightly together. Keith only had time enough to consider that perhaps Blue was the superstitious type before Shiro spoke again.

“What makes you so certain?” he asked of the fisherman.

“The bodies we’ve found, none of them was stabbed or shot or anything of the sort. They were drowned, your Highness, grabbed by the throat and dragged down ‘til the breath left their lungs for good. The bruises round their necks are proof enough. And ain’t nary a soul in our parts that can’t swim, we teach our children and they teach theirs--and what with how many times it’s happened, these can’t be no accidents, least as far as we can tell,” the fisherman explained.

Still some nobles deigned to laugh at the fisherman’s plight. Keith scowled at those whose eyes he caught. As the younger prince, it was not generally up to him to answer the petitions, so instead he took on the responsibility of keeping peace in the court. It was a job he was good at; the nobles silenced themselves promptly. Certainly he didn’t believe the idea that merfolk had come to drown humans as they did in stories, but it was clear that something was going on.

From his expression, Keith could tell that Shiro thought much the same.

“We’ll send some ships from our navy to patrol your waters,” Shiro decided. “In the meantime, you and your people should arm yourselves in whatever way you can. Make certain that anyone who goes out onto open waters has the means to defend themselves.”

The fisherman looked reluctant, but bowed all the same. So too did his companions.

“Thank you, your Highness.”

And just like that, they were escorted from the room, and petitioning continued without any further excitement. Keith glanced at Blue again. His brows were knit together in consternation, his posture more rigid than confident. Keith wanted to take him away right then, to escape into town and make him smile again. Alas, petitions lasted at least another hour before they could get away. By the time they did, Blue looked at ease once more, so Keith decided not to bring the issue up again.

Unfortunately, before he could grab Blue and escape the throne room, they were both accosted by nosy nobles. Keith hated that he couldn’t simply tell them to go away. Didn’t they have anything better to do than get into the business of other people?!

“Your Highness,” the first lady, a one Lady Vernetria of Lucely, greeted with a deep curtsy. Her companions followed suit.

Keith responded with a curt bow of his own. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

The ladies giggled demurely behind their fans. Lady Vernetria was the one to speak again. She’d always been the leader of some clique or other. She was fine company for the most part, but her penchant for gossip made her exhausting at times. Keith knew exactly what she wanted to know.

“We were wondering,” she began in a lilting tone. “Just who your handsome friend is, and if you would be so gracious as to introduce us.”

Keith glanced at Blue, who didn’t seem averse. “This is Blue. He’s here as my guest. Blue, this is Lady Vernetria, Lady Katarin, and Lady Nolette.”

Blue bowed swiftly and smiled in such a way that immediately charmed the ladies. They were on him like sharks to a fresh piece of meat.

“Where are you from?”

“How long will you be staying?”

“Are you single?”

Keith cut in quickly. “Ladies, please, he doesn’t speak. Even so, I can’t speak for him, but he is welcome to stay as long as he likes.”

“Oh, the poor dear!” Lady Katarin simpered. Lady Vernetria gave her a light smack with her closed fan.

“So, your Highness, what did you think of the first petition?” Lady Nolette inquired, smirking slightly. The other two ladies had to restrain her giggles.

“I think people dying is a matter that should be taken seriously,” Keith replied with a twitch of annoyance.

The ladies recoiled slightly, but pressed forward all the same. “In that case it doesn’t seem as though the fishermen aren’t taking it very seriously, don’t you think?”

“I think they’re scared,” Keith told them honestly. “They’re clinging onto whatever explanation they can in the absence of a rational one. That happens to people who spend a lot of time out at sea.”

“Still,” Lady Katarin giggled. “Merfolk?”

“I know! I’m surprised they didn’t say they were hearing irresistible singing from the depths!” Lady Nolette shrieked. Lady Vernetria couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“Oh, Mister Blue, are you alright?” Lady Katarin asked suddenly.

Keith glanced at him, and indeed Blue was looking uncomfortable again. More than that, his eyes flashed like a storm at sea. Keith had to get him out of here, but prying himself from the clutches of court ladies was always a difficult task.

“Mister Blue, do you believe in merfolk?” Lady Vernetria questioned with a sharp flick of her fan.

Blue shook his head, but it was a sharp and jerky motion. Not entirely convincing.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, dear,” Lady Nolette tittered. “Merfolk aren’t real.”

“And even if they were, we’d do them just as people do in the stories,” Lady Vernetria added with a grin. “We’d spear them from top to tail, just like any other fish--”

Before Keith could do anything to get her to stop, she stopped on her own, mouth agape and eyes suddenly unfocused. Her friends tapped her shoulder urgently, concerned by this alarming state of her’s. Keith, too, was troubled. What on earth…?

She snapped out of it before too long. She shook her head and said, “Dear me, my apologies. Anyways, I’m sure you have things you’d like to be getting to, your Highness. We shouldn’t hold up you and your guest any longer. Mister Blue, I do hope we see you around for some time to come.”

Keith blinked. “Thank you, I--have a good day, ladies.”

They curtsied and took their leaves, Lady Vernetria looking utterly perplexed with her friends much in the same way. Keith was confused too. Still, it was just as well that she seemed to change her mind so suddenly. He and Blue were finally free. He looked at Blue, who looked a little confused as well. He merely shrugged. His eyes seemed more settled now than they had only a moment earlier.

“Well, that was… something. I hope they didn’t bother you too much. They’re good people, just a bit tactless at times,” Keith said as he shucked off his outer coat and passed it off to a servant. Then he smiled. “So, you ready to see what the town has to offer?”

Blue nodded earnestly, and Keith’s smile widened. They hurried outside, where a horse drawn carriage was waiting for them. Keith paused as he caught sight of the ocean. He still heard those whispers, still felt that tender touch, but they were fainter now, more distant. They were elusive as the horizon, it seemed. And yet Keith still longed for them. He climbed into the carriage after helping Blue up. Keith never liked to sit on such things for too long, and if there was nothing he could do about it, then, well…

Keith laughed as Blue studied the horses with intense fascination. Today, he decided, would be a good day.

Lance was of the same opinion, though he wasn’t able to say as much. He’d been rightly distressed at the idea of merfolk drowning humans, and more so when the ladies had interrogated him about merfolk. Of all the people they could’ve asked! In the meantime, his mind was furiously trying to discern the truth of the situation. It was possible that it was the acts of a few rogue mermaids, as the waters in that direction, as far as Lance could remember, did not belong to any particular kingdom. There was also the distinct possibility that it wasn’t merfolk at all, but the idea that merfolk were suspect at all was alarming to say the least.

Thankfully Keith made no more mention of it as they made their way out into town, and Lance was able to throw himself entirely into every new curiosity he came across. First were the four legged the beasts that looked nothing like dogs pulling the box-like object he and Keith were seated in. Lance leaned over the edge, trying to see how it all worked, only to be pulled right back in by a frantic Keith.

It wasn’t a far ride into town. There were more humans in one place than Lance had ever seen before, and that was including the castle he’d just been in! Everyone was buzzing with activity, bustling this way and that, talking to one another, bargaining, working, and all manner of amazing things.

Keith smiled at Lance’s enthusiasm. 

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Keith assured him.

The vehicle they were in stopped by a peculiar structure that spouted water. A few people were gathered around it. Some were merely chatting with each other, while others took water from it. At the bottom, Lance noticed something glittering. He tapped Keith urgently on the arm and pointed it out.

“Oh, that?” Keith said. “It’s just the fountain, nothing special. People get fresh water from it, and supposedly if you throw a coin in you can make a wish.”

Lance considered that for a moment. So, humans had their own sort of magic after all. If he ever got his voice back, he decided, he was going to rub that in Pidge’s face so hard. In the meantime, he had no coins to exchange for wishes, and so was about to take to his next fancy when Keith offered a coin to him, a coin quite unlike the ones Lance used to scrounge up from sunken ships for Pidge.

“Want to make a wish?” Keith asked.

Lance nodded and took the coin from Keith. He watched intently as Keith took another coin and flipped it neatly into the water, not saying a single word. His confusion must’ve shown on his face, because Keith was smiling again.

“What? If you say your wish out loud it won’t come true.”

Well then, Lance thought as he tried to imitate Keith’s motions, his wish was sure to come true. Twice he dropped his coin to the ground, finally electing to just hurl it into the water. Keith snorted, and they moved on.

There were so many things to see, so many things to do, Lance could hardly keep track of all of them. Once they passed by a cart of strange birds, which Lance knew to be birds only by the feathers that trailed after the cart. They made a strange sound that Lance didn’t even know was possible for birds to make. He thought they all screeched, like seagulls.

Keith tried his very best to show his guest the more interesting parts of town. His blue-eyed friend, however, seemed interested in just about everything, and Keith was helpless to resist as Blue dragged him to and fro, his zeal for even the smallest things seeming to know no limits. To most it might’ve seemed child-like, what with how easily Blue was distracted and how he seemed to have a blatant disregard for how things worked (Keith had to apologize profusely when Blue walked right up to a small booth where puppeteers were performing, and yanked a puppet right off the hand of some poor actor), but to Keith, it was impossibly endearing.

It was a little hard to keep up with Blue though. Where only yesterday he’d initially been unsteady on his feet as a fish out of water, Blue now hopped around effortlessly after everything that moved. Just as Keith was wondering how he was going to make it through the day, he spotted something that he was certain Blue would love.

“Hey, Blue!” he called as the young man was admiring a stall that offered a brilliant array of flowers.

Blue skipped over to Keith with a grin as bright as sunlight on the sea. Keith held out his hand. Blue took it without question, and Keith led him towards a pavillion lined with flowers, where a band had struck up a lively tune and several people had taken to dancing. As Keith suspected, Blue was immediately taken by the sight. He jumped on the spot, gesturing first between himself and the dancers, and then between him and Keith.

The question was clear as day.

“You want to dance?” Keith asked anyways.

Blue nodded.

Without another word, Keith led him out onto the pavillion. Blue’s steps were uncertain at first, as though he’d never danced before. Keith whispered gentle reassurances, the hand on Blue’s waist strong and steady. Slowly but surely, Blue learned how to not trip over his own feet, and perhaps more importantly, how to not step on Keith’s.

Soon enough they were twirling around the pavillion with fervor. Blue’s eyes were alight with mirth, his cheeks flushed. Keith found it impossible to avert his eyes from the sight.

Suddenly, Keith got an idea. He pulled Blue close, and asked, “You ready for a lift?”

Blue tilted his head. Keith grinned.

“Oh, this is going to be fun,” Keith said, more to himself than to Blue.

He placed both of his hands securely on Blue’s waist and held tight. Blue’s eyes widened.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you, okay?”

Blue nodded.

In time with the music, Keith lifted Blue as high as he could and twirled him around. Blue was surprised at first, and then tossed his head back in silent, rapturous laughter. Keith thought he could almost hear it, like like wind whisking over the waves. When he set Blue back on the ground, they held each other just a little closer.

Lance was breathless by the time the sun started to sink in the sky. Not only had he seen more things than his head could manage to remember, but he’d learned to dance! With Keith! And the lift! It wasn’t until Lance caught sight of the setting sun, a reminder of his limited time, that he paused for long enough to catch his breath once more.

They’d returned to the strange vehicle they’d arrived in, supposedly getting ready to return to the castle. Lance didn’t want to go. Going back meant ending the day, and ending the day just meant that much less time spent with Keith. Not that he could say that. It seemed he would just have to be content with what he’d been given.

They had just started on their way when Keith said, “Do you mind if we take a little detour? There’s one last place I want to take you.”

Lance nodded, feeling dizzy from how many times he’d repeated the motion that day. Keith sighed, seeming almost relieved that Lance was willing.

“Great,” he said with a smile. “I think you’ll really like this place.”

~*~

Allura woke with a violent start in the middle of the second day. Her cheek had been pressed into the rough texture of the last tablet she’d been reading. She tried to rub the sleep from her eyes, to no avail. She had no idea when she’d fallen asleep, but she did know that the sun had already been up, so she couldn’t have been asleep for that long. Instead of retiring to her room, she picked up the tablet she’d been using as a pillow and continued reading.

“Oftentimes practitioners of alchemy saw fit to masquerade themselves as other creatures, including humans,” the tablet read. “Through the art of alchemy, as they learned it from the sea itself, alchemists were able to change their forms as it suited them. However, these forms were temporary and unstable. If they shifted their forms to mimic other creatures of the sea as they were, they would simply revert to their original form after some number of days.” 

Allura pressed her lips tightly together as she continued to read, “However, should creatures of the sea choose to mimic the form of creatures of the land, such as humans, there were severe consequences. Being creatures of the sea, those who mimicked the visage of humans took on even more unstable forms, which invariably collapsed into sea foam after some number of days. For this reason, few creatures chose to appear as humans.”

Allura sighed heavily. So Lotor hadn’t been lying. She pressed on, hoping for a way to reverse this inevitable end.

“There was, for those who changed their forms, only a few known ways to lend some permanence to their borrowed forms. The first, and most desirable, was for the changed creature to give their heart to someone who belonged to those creatures the changed was imitating. Oftentimes this exchange was already done before one would change to match the other. This method tends towards the more metaphysical aspect of alchemy, and signifies the willingness of both creatures to accept the worlds of one another (in spite of the contradictory nature of the action of one changing to belong to the other’s world).”

“The second method tended towards the more scientific and physical aspect of alchemy, the part that allowed for the change in the first place. It was far less desirable than the first method, and often made the changed an outcast before they could make a place for themselves in the aimed for society. This method involved the murder of one who already belonged to the aimed for society, effectively taking their place. Specifically, it was a literal version of the first method, as the changed was required to carve out their heart and hold it with them for some number of days, or until they were assured of the permanence of their form.”

Allura set the tablet aside and put her face in her hands. The first method was the one that Lotor had told Lance, only with a more specific deadline. By the way this record put it, there was a chance that Lance had a bit more time, but to the same end should he fail to secure Keith’s heart. There was no way she could convince Lance to try the second method, no matter how desperate things became. Even if presented with a human who might deserve such an end, Lance was not a killer. Allura couldn’t and more importantly wouldn’t ask that of him.

“Allura, dear?” a voice called just as Allura was nodding off again.

She whirled around, only a little startled, but then relaxed. “Oh, mother! Uh—hello.”

Queen Melenor raised an eyebrow. “I was wondering why my only daughter didn’t come to greet me when she returned so suddenly. Now I see. She’s becoming more like her father every day.”

Allura laughed, and swam into her mother’s outstretched arms. She let herself stay there a moment, let herself feel like a child overwhelmed by the vastness of the ocean, of the entire world. The world was not so large in her mother’s arms. Much as she wanted to, Allura could not linger.

“I’m sorry, mother, I didn’t mean to neglect you, it’s just that some very important things came up and our library has the best kept records,” Allura explained.

Melenor brushed a thumb across Allura’s cheek. “I can see that. Do these records also make good pillows?”

“It’s that important mother,” Allura insisted. “But I’m afraid I’ve hit another dead end.”

Melenor hummed. “Perhaps a break is in order?”

“Much as I’d love to--”

“Wonderful! Come along, dear!” Melenor trilled, promptly dragging her daughter away.

“Mother!”

“Allura!” Melenor teased. “It’s just a small break for food. Surely you don’t intend to starve yourself?”

Allura sighed. She had in fact neglected to eat anything since she buried herself in the archives.

“I suppose some food would do me some good.”

“Good!” Melenor said with a smile. “I’m afraid your father won’t be joining us, but we should have a meal together sometime, it’s been far too long.”

“What’s father up to that you can’t drag him away?” Allura inquired, now swimming beside her mother.

Her mother’s expression fell slightly. “Negotiations with the cecaelia, I’m afraid.”

“Again?!” Allura all but shrieked. She made a quick apology for her outburst before continuing. “But we just met with them before I left. What else could they want?”

They settled in a small dining room before Melenor answered. “A great many things, I’m afraid. They’ve always been rather demanding, and what with no clear heir to the throne and an ailing emperor, several factions have approached us for assistance.”

“Whatever did happen to the heir? I could’ve sworn there was one at some point,” Allura commented.

“There was, but his father banished him, I hear,” Melenor said. “They tried to keep it hush, but with that being the only heir, it was difficult to keep it so.”

“Banished his only heir? What in the seven seas happened?” Allura asked as she began to pick at the food in front of her.

“I never heard anything but rumors, but most people agree that the emperor’s son was practicing some terrifying witchcraft,” Melenor informed her in a low voice.

Allura nearly choked on her food. “Witchcraft?!”

Melenor nodded, hardly noticing her daughter’s distress. “Indeed, though everyone knows it was more likely alchemy. Your father says that their kingdom has a history of alchemy that runs just as deep as ours, but as with us it fell into disuse. I can only imagine what sort of awful things the lad must’ve done with the art to have gotten himself banished.”

“What awful things indeed,” Allura mused to herself. She pushed herself away from the table and began to swim away with a sense of urgency.

“Allura, where are you off to now?!” Melenor demanded.

“I’m sorry, mother, I’ve just had a thought that might help me break through this dead end of mine! I promise we’ll all have a meal together soon!” Allura assured her.

Instead of returning to the library, however, Allura swam to where she knew her father was talking with the cecaelian dignitaries. She had a visit to make.

~*~

“Are you alright?” Hunk asked as he peeked out of the water below the bridge that led to the castle.

Pidge was red-faced and wheezing. “Lance—spent the entire day—running around—hardly a break—“

“How are things going between him and Keith?” Hunk pressed.

“Good,” Pidge huffed as they struggled to catch their breath. “Really good. Like, I think Keith is taking Lance somewhere romantic kind of good.”

Hunk’s eyes widened. “Where is he taking him?!”

“Probably to the lagoon. Keith likes to go there on occasion, but I don’t think he really brings people there,” Pidge explained, grinning.

“Where is it? I’ll keep an eye on them so you can take a break!”

~*~

“I like to come here a lot,” Keith explained as they exited the carriage. “It’s quiet, especially once the sun starts to go down, and then the fireflies come out and it’s beautiful. The ocean is great and all, but this is something else entirely.

Perhaps it was because Blue was mute, but Keith felt as though he could talk a lot more freely around him. At the very least, he felt like he was filling up a lot of the conversational space between them. Blue didn’t seem to mind. He watched Keith with a sort of earnestness that Keith wasn’t quite used to, but that he found he didn’t mind. Sometimes he would try to tell Keith something (usually his name), but Keith could usually only guess what he was saying about half the time. He hoped he could get better.

Keith led Blue by the hand down towards the water, where a well-kept dinghy was hidden in the reeds.

“I like to swim around here a lot too, so we could do that instead if you want,” Keith suggested. “It’s a nice enough night for it.”

Blue looked hesitant, but curious.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Keith assured him.

Blue shook his head and then gestured between himself and the water. He made a paddling motion, and then tapped a finger to his temple. He shook his head again.

“You don’t want to? No, you want to…” Keith followed along. “But you… you’re swimming—oh! You don’t know how to swim!”

Blue nodded with a grin, delighted that Keith had guessed what he’d been saying.

“That’s alright, I can teach you!” Keith said eagerly. “That is, if you want to, anyways…”

Blue nodded.

Keith stripped off his shoes and shirt, and Blue copied him with rapt attention. Blue grasped Keith’s hand tightly as they waded into lavender waters. Keith never took his eyes off of him, watching as he gasped silently at the chill of the water. Around them, crickets were already humming their nightly serenade. The wind swept through the reeds with a soft shushing sound. They were wading deeper, the water creeping up their waists, when Blue slipped and pitched forward, splashing about in alarm. Keith pulled him closer.

“Don’t worry,” Keith said quietly as he wrapped an arm around Blue’s waist. “I’ve got you.”

Blue nodded. He trusted Keith, his eyes seemed to say. Carefully, Keith brought them both out to deeper waters. Blue’s eyes widened as the water started to lap at his chin, and Keith paused.

“Can you still touch the bottom?” Keith asked. Blue nodded. “Good. I’m going to let go for a bit, just so I can show you what to do, okay?”

Blue was more hesitant at that, but nodded all the same. Keith did not go more than an arm’s reach away as he began to move his arms in slow, wide circles.

“See the way I’m moving my arms? I’m also kicking my legs just enough to keep my head above the water. This is how you tread water. It doesn’t take up much energy, but it won’t get you anywhere either. Give it a try,” Keith encouraged.

Blue began to move his arms, trying to mimic just how Keith was doing it.

“You have to kick your legs too,” Keith reminded him.

With a resolved expression, Blue hopped in the water and then dropped right under the surface. His arms flailed wildly and Keith rushed to pull him right back up. Blue sputtered and snorted and looked very confused. He clung to Keith with a silent desperation, his eyes seeming to say, “Please don’t let me go.”

“It takes a little getting used to,” Keith chuckled once he was sure Blue was okay. “Most people around here know how to swim as soon as they can walk, some even sooner. I suppose it goes with living right on the coast.”

Keith took to spinning them slowly in the water, almost like a dance. Blue did not object in the slightest. Neither of them moved to let go of the other.

“I was actually older than most when I first learned to swim,” Keith admitted. “I suppose that goes along with being a prince. Everyone wants to protect you. Shiro was really bad about that when I was little, but I eventually convinced him that it would be safer for me if I knew how to swim. So he got someone to teach me. It was actually here that I learned to swim. The water is calm, much more so than the ocean, so it’s a good place to learn.”

Blue pushed at Keith’s shoulder gently as though pushing away.

Keith raised his eyebrows. “You want to try again?”

Blue nodded.

“Alright then.”

There was no telling how much time passed as Keith and Blue splashed about in the lagoon. Keith laughed often and loudly, accompanied by Blue’s silent giggles. Blue was clumsy but eager. Once he moved his legs in such a way that Keith thought of a mermaid. When he teased as much, however, Blue only offered a tight smile in return. Keith, reminded of the petition from that very morning, wanted to ask what had Blue so bothered about it, but they were having a good time. He didn’t want to upset Blue if he didn’t have to. Besides, Keith could always ask later.

The stars above were already shining brightly by the time Blue could swim on his own, much to the delight of both of them. Keith led him through the waters of the lagoon, leading him towards a large, drooping willow that had always been Keith’s favorite place. Once or twice they heard some loud splashing that hadn’t come from either of them, that Keith brushed off as being some overzealous fish or other. By the look of it, Blue didn’t quite agree with him, but made no motion of protest.

Keith pulled aside the branches of the willow like a curtain, and was delighted to find the fireflies out in full force within. Blue, too, seemed overwhelmingly in awe of them, tapping Keith urgently on his shoulder and pointing excitedly. The water under the willow was shallow enough that Blue took to chasing after the bright bugs. He pouted when they slipped right through his fingers, and Keith couldn’t help but chuckle. With practiced poise, Keith scooped a few out of the air while Blue wasn’t looking. He called out to Blue, and when he came close enough, Keith released them, lighting up Blue’s already bright face.

Blue’s entire body shook with silent laughter. Keith smiled fondly. Then Blue went to try to catch some again. Keith was just about to show him how to do it when, just as Blue was staring with intense concentration at the bright bugs, when several of them flew straight into his cupped hands. Delighted, Blue moved over to Keith and released them just in front of him, a mimic of what Keith had done for him. 

Keith laughed, the warmth in his chest a gentle contrast to the slight chill of the water. Blue was smiling, eyes shining. They were standing close now, just enough room to breathe. Keith didn’t move away. Neither did Blue.

“I wish I knew your name,” he whispered in the space between them. He laughed when Blue repeated that motion again, the one he always used to mime his name. “I’m sorry I’m so bad at this.”

A harsh, whisper-like sound made Keith whip his head around. It had sounded like someone was there, but Keith couldn’t see anyone. There was no one there but him and Blue. Looks could be deceiving sometimes, however.

“Did you hear something?”

Blue shrugged. He mimed his name again.

“Okay, okay. It’s a type of weapon, right?” Blue nodded. “And it’s not a pike, or a spear, or a halberd… Probably not a staff, but then, you don’t normally jab with a staff anyways…”

Blue rolled his eyes. Keith thought he heard that whisper again, closer and more insistent. It almost sounded like someone saying--

“Lance?” Keith mumbled, eyes suspiciously roving their surroundings.

Excited splashing from Blue caught his attention again. He was nodding, pointing at Keith, and grinning widely. He mimed his name a third time.

“What? I said--oh! Lance! Your name is Lance!” Keith exclaimed.

Blue--or rather, Lance, grabbed Keith’s hand, jumping in what could only be described as sheer elation. Keith didn’t blame him. He’d probably be excited too if no one had been calling him by his name for almost two whole days.

“Lance,” Keith repeated, letting the name roll off his tongue. Lance settled down, still smiling. “I don’t know how I didn’t guess that before… it suits you.”

Lance’s eyes locked with his, and Keith once more found himself entranced by how they seemed to be filled to the brim with the ocean itself. Keith had no doubt he could easily drown in them. He found he wouldn’t mind if he did. It was like a rip current pulling him out to sea. There was no swimming against it. Lance’s eyelashes fluttered, but it did little to deter Keith as the distance between them shrank. He could hear the soft rush of Lance’s breath as it went past his lips, like the rush of waves along the beach. It carried away the memory of a whisper, and let it sink to the ocean floor where all forgotten things went. Keith let his eyes close. There was no swimming against this current.

“Lance!”

Lance and Keith sprang apart from one another. Lance was frozen in place, equal parts horrified and furious. Just as quickly as the emotions came over him, however, they left, replaced by heavy dread. Hunk wouldn’t call out to him for no reason, not when Lance had been so close. Something was wrong.

Keith meanwhile was searching with his eyes and completely on guard. There would be no playing it off this time. He turned to Lance, eyes full of distrust.

“Who was—“

Before he could finish his question, Keith was dragged underneath the water with little more than a gasp. Lance plunged in after him unthinkingly. The water here was not like the water of the ocean, and so didn’t sting too much when Lance tried to open his eyes. There, just ahead, Keith was struggling against the hands of a very familiar mermaid with the tail of a shark. She had him from behind, her clawed hands clasped tightly around his throat. He kicked and thrashed wildly, but to no avail. The mermaid noticed Lance and said something, but all Lance could hear was a bubbly noise.

Lance tried to move towards them, but his human limbs were still awkward and unsure in the water. His lungs were already burning. He would have to resurface for air. But how far would this mermaid be able to get with Keith before Lance made it back down? How much longer could Keith last? Already his struggling was becoming sluggish. Lance pressed forward, his own need for air be damned. If Keith died here Lance was as good as dead anyways.

Only before he could even get close, strong arms wrapped around Lance and set to squeezing the life out of him. The pressure against his throat was enough to make him cough and sputter. Water began to flood him, betraying him where it had once been his friend. It burned like nothing Lance had ever experienced. He flailed as hard as he could, trying to get some leeway, but to no avail. Everything hurt. No matter what he did, Lance couldn’t stop the stuttering of his lungs, couldn’t stop taking in more water.

Lance locked eyes with the mermaid choking the life out of Keith, silently pleading for her to let him go, for something to make her let go, to go away and not bother them again! His thoughts were screaming as loud as his lungs, and in his fading consciousness he thought he saw the mermaid falter, thought he saw her hands loosen slightly… 

And then Lance could breathe again. He didn’t know how or why, but he was coughing and retching and very much alive. Distantly he thought there’d been a golden flash before his eyes; Lance had thought he was well and truly dying. Now he wasn’t. Had Keith rescued him? Lance blinked the water out of his eyes, instinctively moving his mouth to call out. Keith was nowhere to be seen. He was still in danger.

Lance was getting ready to dive back into the water when Hunk surfaced dramatically, hauling an unconscious Keith along with him. He had a fierce air about him, one that Lance wasn’t quite sure he’d ever seen before. Hunk spotted Lance gaping.

“What are you doing?! Get out of the water!” he commanded.

Lance didn’t dare dally at that tone. He went as fast as his human body would take him. It was markedly slower than what he was used to, slower even than Hunk, who was encumbered by Keith’s weight. All the while he worried that one of the mermaids would return to finish off Keith, or himself, or perhaps Hunk for having gotten in the way. Despite his worries, they made it to shore safely, Lance taking Keith where Hunk could no longer go.

Immediately Lance pressed his ear to Keith’s chest. His heart was still beating, but his breath was coming in short, staccatoed gasps as though he were still drowning. Perhaps he was. There were bruises and scratches all along his neck, and a stark cut running down his cheek where the mermaid had evidently slipped when trying to get a hold of Keith. It was bleeding sluggishly. Lance looked to Hunk, who could offer nothing but a worried expression.

“I don’t know, bud,” Hunk said quietly.

Lance’s thoughts were racing faster than he could keep up with them. He’d started to breath as soon as he’d left the water, although he’d also had to cough up a substantial amount of water. He also hadn’t lost consciousness. Would Keith be alright if Lance let him be? Would he deteriorate? Lance checked to make sure Keith’s heart was still beating. It was. How much longer would that last?

Lance looked at Hunk again. Hunk was looking out towards the lagoon, occasionally ducking underwater to keep watch for those mermaids.

“I spotted them lurking around not too long after you guys got in the water,” Hunk explained. “I thought maybe they were just keeping an eye on you for Lotor, but then I started to wonder why he would need to do that. That’s why I was trying to get your attention.”

Lance frowned as guilt washed over him like the coming tide. It seemed Lance was as careless as usual. He looked down at Keith, who was still unconscious, still struggling to breathe properly. Perhaps it would’ve been better if he’d never become human at all, Lance considered.

“Lance, I know what you’re thinking. This isn’t your fault,” Hunk assured him.

Lance shook his head and began to move his hands, gesturing to himself, then to Hunk, and finally to Keith. It was hardly clear, and not nearly enough to express what he was trying to say. So instead, Lance turned away from Hunk and hugged himself tightly. He felt like he was drowning all over again.

“Lance,” Hunk called gently. “Lance, listen to me, this isn’t your fault. Whatever Lotor is up to is on him, not you.”

Turning back to Hunk, Lance gestured vaguely. Thankfully, Hunk seemed to understand.

“We knew from the beginning that Lotor might not be trustworthy. Maybe I don’t get why he’d want to drown you and Keith, but that just means that there’s something bigger going on that we just don’t know,” Hunk insisted.

Despite still being convinced that if he hadn’t been so reckless this would’ve never happened, Hunk’s words did spark something in Lance’s mind. It was something that Lance knew he couldn’t communicate with vague hand gestures, however, no matter how well Hunk knew him. So Lance took to drawing crudely in the sand that met the shallow water. Hunk squinted at the lines, trying to decipher their meaning.

“Okay, uhm… That’s the sun… And it’s rising… Wow, water, very specific… an arrow? Oh! You mean water in the direction the sun rises in, got it! Okay, okay, now we’ve got humans on boats, got it, and… merfolk? Wait, hold on, are they--?”

Hunk stopped short, his expression distraught.

“You’re not saying that there’s merfolk drowning humans again, are you?” Hunk asked.

Lance shook his head as he pointed to himself.

“But humans think so?”

Lance pointed at Keith and shook his head again.

“Not all humans, but some. How are they even sure it’s merfolk at all?”

Lance shrugged and then pointed out towards the lagoon.

Hunk blinked. “Lotor. What in the seven seas is he up to?”

Lance shrugged again and turned back towards Keith. Still breathing, if only just.

“Lance, I think I need to tell Allura what’s happening,” Hunk said slowly. “The last thing I want to do is leave you, but something is going on here and while I was able to take those two mermaids on my own this time, I only think that’s because they didn’t expect me to be here. They swam away as soon as they realized I was here. I don’t think we’ll be so lucky next time.”

Reluctantly, Lance nodded. As long as he and Keith remained on land, they were safe from Lotor’s reach. And he’d have Pidge, and to some extent Keith and Shiro and Adam. But what of Hunk and Allura and anyone else that got involved? Would they be safe from Lotor? Just what was Lotor trying to accomplish anyways?

As if reading Lance’s mind, Hunk said, “We’ll be fine. It’s not like Lotor is killing off merfolk, aside from you, anyways. I mean, look at what just happened! They turned tail as soon as I showed up! And you know Allura’s no pushover either.”

Lance nodded again, a little more certain this time. As if on cue, Keith began to cough violently, trying to expel all the water he’d inhaled. Hunk left with a silent nod to Lance. Keith rolled over onto his side, and Lance, not knowing what else to do, rubbed soothing circles on his back. Eventually Keith managed to take a huge gulp of air and flopped back onto his back, breathing hard.

He opened his eyes when Lance traced the edge of the cut on his cheek. Lance worried that those eyes would be full of distrust once more, as they had been when he heard Hunk call out for Lance. Keith’s eyes widened for a split second; Lance’s breath caught in his throat. Then he softened entirely, smiling as he took Lance’s hand with his.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he rasped.

Lance couldn’t take it anymore. Every nerve in his body seemed to snap with the force of his silent sobs. His breath came quickly, and just when Lance thought it couldn’t get any worse, his face suddenly felt hot and wet. He recoiled, realizing that there was something spilling out of his eyes. He pressed his hands to his eyes. Now was not the time to start leaking! He didn’t even know that this was a thing that happened to humans!

“Hey, hey,” Keith hushed, sitting up and taking Lance’s hands from him. “It’s okay, we’re okay.”

Lance shook his head, trying to tug his hands back. Things were most certainly not okay! Lotor was up to something devious and there was no telling what, humans were being drowned and they were blaming merfolk for it, Lance had managed to drag Keith into all of it, and now, on top of everything else, his face was leaking! Why had he ever thought becoming human would be a good idea?!

Keith wiped the wetness from his face, apparently not as concerned about it as Lance was.

“Hey, Lance, listen to me,” Keith said, as gentle as could be. “Everything’s going to be alright. We’re alive, we’re okay.”

Lance touched the cut on Keith’s face.

Keith shrugged, saying, “It could be worse.”

With some gentle coaxing, Keith helped Lance back into the vehicle they’d arrived in. The ride back to the castle was silent, punctuated only by Lance’s sniffles. Once in a while Keith would reach over and offer some gentle touch or other. Sometimes he would rub circles on Lance’s back, other times he would brush Lance’s hair back (although it was short enough that it was never in Lance’s face). Lance welcomed the contact, leaning into it every time.

The hour was late, and no one else was on the road. They made their return swiftly. Where before Lance had been reluctant to return to the castle, he now welcomed it. The castle meant safety. As long as they were here, they were safe. Lance glanced at the ocean just before they went inside. Was this to be part of his life as a human, should he make it past tomorrow?

Keith led Lance back to the room he’d stayed in the night before, clasping his hands tightly all the while.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” he told Lance. “Change into something warm and dry.”

He turned to leave, but Lance held tight to his hand with a questioning expression.

“I have to talk to Shiro,” Keith explained.

When Lance still looked confused, Keith elaborated, “Whatever attacked us in the water wasn’t any ordinary fish. And it’s no coincidence that this happened the same day we got a petition from supposedly superstitious sailors.”

Lance’s eyes widened.

“There’s merfolk in the waters. And they’re trying to kill us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! Stay tuned for the third and final part ;D
> 
> And if you like, find me on my klance sideblog on tumblr @stories-in-the-stars for updates on this and other projects.


	3. Part of Your World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! The third and final part! I hope y'all are ready!

Allura tried to rub the sleep from her burning eyes. It wouldn’t do to be presented to a foreign monarch looking half-dead, after all. Her tail was perfectly still as she waited to be summoned. Her appearance was abrupt, to be sure, but hopefully she could still be seen quickly. It was early in the third day. There wasn’t much time left.

“Your Highness,” came a voice from the door of the dim sitting room she’d been left to wait in. “The emperor will see you now.”

Allura rose from her seat and tried to smooth out her billowing white hair. She followed the cecaelia silently, heart pounding all the while. Ailing though he was known to be, the cecaelian emperor was still a force to be reckoned with. Allura had only met him a few times as a child, and while he had seemed kind but stern at first, as his health began to fail him so too did his kindness. But that had been years ago. Allura had no idea what to expect now.

The dark doors of the throne room (darker than she remembered them) swung open to admit her into the throne room as the herald announced her. Allura made her steady way towards the throne, not too fast, not too slow. She bowed low, tail curling just so behind her.

“Emperor Zarkon,” she spoke in a steady tone. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me on such short notice.”

Zarkon sat silently on his throne, hunched over and perfectly still. Allura wondered idly just how bad his health really was. When he spoke, however, he sounded stronger than he seemed, but also more menacing. With his voice alone he seemed to make the entire room tremble. Allura hoped that she wasn’t visibly shaking.

“What is it you want from me?”

Allura kept her head high, her voice clear. “I would like to request access to your archives, your Majesty.”

Zarkon grumbled. “Altea’s archives are known to be replete with a great many topics, in a depth not rivaled by any other. What is it you could possibly want to know that is not contained in your own library already?”

“Alchemy, your Majesty.”

The water in the room grew heavy (although perhaps that was just Allura--this kingdom was quite a bit deeper than her home). For the first time Zarkon seemed to move, taking on a fierce posture.

“What use do you have for alchemy?” he demanded.

“No use, only curiosity,” Allura assured him.

Zarkon narrowed his gleaming eyes. Allura put every ounce of her willpower into keeping her posture formal but relaxed.

“We have nothing that would be of use to you,” Zarkon finally said. “If that is all you have come for, then you should leave.”

“But if I could simply look for myself--” Allura began insistently.

“What impudence is this?!” Zarkon thundered. “First you make an unplanned, unexplained appearance to request an immediate audience with me without thought to how that might inconvenience me, and then you think you have the right to make demands of me?!”

“Forgive me, I--”

“Begone!” Zarkon commanded.

His tone brooked no argument. Allura was promptly escorted out and she went without complaint. Or at least, no complaint that she voiced. Zarkon had told her there would be nothing of use to her, but had still refused her access to his archives. If there was nothing of use, then why refuse her access? Allura was convinced that Zarkon was hiding something.

And she intended to find out just what that was.

~*~

The guards at Shiro’s apartments did not dare question the younger prince as he hurried towards the door, no doubt looking particularly fierce with the fresh cut running down his face. One of them asked if he should send for a doctor, but Keith ignored him and threw open the doors.

“Shiro!” he called. “Shiro, wake up!”

Keith closed the door behind him and waited in the sitting room. He stoked the fire to a blaze as he waited, listening to Shiro grumble from the bedroom he shared with Adam. From the sound of things, neither of them were happy to be woken at such an hour. Keith didn’t care. This was not a matter that could be delayed.

The bedroom door flew open to reveal a less than pleased Shiro. “This had better be--”

He halted when he saw the state of Keith. He nodded to Adam, who went to send a servant for a doctor. Keith let him. They’d be fluttering over him unnecessarily if he didn’t agree to let a doctor see him anyways. Shiro gestured for Keith to sit, and sat in a chair across from him, expression full of worry.

“What happened?” Shiro demanded.

“You remember the first petition of this morning? The fisherman with the merfolk problem?” Keith asked.

Shiro nodded slowly.

“His problem is real.”

Shiro raised his eyebrows. He trusted Keith unwaveringly, but perhaps, Keith considered, this was too much. These were creatures of supposed myth, after all, but Keith was certain of what had happened. Something with hands had grabbed him, tried to squeeze the life out of him. He hadn’t gotten a very good look, but it was good enough for him to know that whatever had attacked him and Lance was very much not human.

“Tell me what happened,” Shiro insisted.

Keith obliged. “I was down at the lagoon, and I was teaching Lance how to swim--”

“Lance?”

“Do you mean the handsome guest you brought home a couple days ago? Did you finally guess his name?” Adam asked.

“Yes,” Keith answered quickly. “Anyways, we were swimming in the lagoon and--and something grabbed me and dragged me down. It wasn’t any fish either. It had hands, with claws, and it tried very hard to drown me. Another one tried to drown Lance.”

“Are you sure?” Shiro pressed.

Keith gestured to his face and neck. “You think I did this to myself?!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry, I just--this is really hard to believe,” Shiro amended.

“I know,” Keith said. “I didn’t believe it when the fisherman came to us with his petition. But now I do.”

“But all the fishermen were fatally drowned,” Adam pointed out. “How were you able to get away?”

“Sheer luck,” Keith guessed with a shrug. “That, and…”

He trailed off, pressing his lips tightly together.

“And?” Shiro nudged.

“I think Lance was the one who rescued me,” Keith said quietly, barely audible over the crackle of the fire.

“Well, that makes sense, since Lance was the only other one there, although how he managed to get away when he couldn’t even swim at first is--”

“No,” Keith interrupted. “I think Lance was the one who rescued me from the shipwreck. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, and I don’t even know why he’s here now--It doesn’t even make sense, because I was sure that whoever rescued me could speak, and Lance can’t… But somehow I just feel like it was him, all along.”

A beat of silence passed through the room. Adam and Shiro exchanged a look that Keith couldn’t quite decipher, and wasn’t sure that he liked.

“But that’s not what’s important right now!” Keith hurried. He was thinking that he might have added too much fuel to the fire; the room was stifling all of a sudden. “What’s important is that is a very real threat facing the kingdom right now, and all we’ve done is send the merfolk more people to drown!”

Shiro nodded, his expression resolute. “You’re right. But this… This is something our kingdom hasn’t faced in centuries. If you weren’t here telling me that you’d almost been drowned by one, I wouldn’t believe that this was a real problem at all.”

“We need more information,” Adam added. “I can get a task of librarians to look up some old legends regarding merfolk.”

“We also can’t just sit around and wait while this keeps happening to people. We can’t just tell our people to not go out to sea!” Keith insisted.

“Keith,” Shiro said firmly. “The ships I tasked to patrol the eastern waters are set to leave tomorrow afternoon. That gives us enough time to briefly research effective methods of defense against merfolk and outfit our men accordingly.”

“I’m going with them,” Keith decided.

“Keith--”

But Keith leveled his brother with a fixed look that was all too familiar. Shiro paused, considering whether he should try to talk Keith out of this or not. Keith remained resolute. No matter what, he was going. There was no way he wasn’t going to face this problem directly, not after what had just happened. Eventually, Shiro seemed convinced of this.

“Fine,” Shiro relented. “But don’t you dare get drowned!”

“Oh, come on, Shiro,” Keith said airily, at ease now that he’d gotten his way. “If they couldn’t drown me this time what makes you think they’ll be able to do when I see them coming?”

A soft knock came at the door, and the doctor was admitted into the room. Keith winced as she dabbed the cut, muttering about disinfectant and how much of a pain it would be to dress such a wound, and how it would likely leave a scar. Meanwhile, the problem at hand seemed to be well and settled. Which meant, apparently, that it was time to tease Keith.

“So,” Shiro started as he and Adam leaned in eagerly. “You took Lance to the lagoon?”

~*~

Allura was supposed to be gone by now, turned away as she was by Emperor Zarkon. And she would be. As soon as she found out what he was hiding about alchemy. She’d managed to slip away from the servants that should’ve been escorting her to the small delegation she’d come with, and had no doubt they were dashing about like mad trying to find her. She had only to hope that they wouldn’t find her before she found answers, and that they were too intimidated by Zarkon to tell him they’d lost her before she found them again.

Unfortunately, she had yet to come across any tablets with even a whisper of alchemy. Her hands flew over the stones, searching, scanning, but ultimately not finding what she was looking for. She gazed hopelessly at the the shelves that were nearly as numerous as the ones in her own library. There was no way she could go through it all before being discovered. Time had doubled down on her. There never seemed to be enough of it anymore.

“You will not find what you seek here,” a harsh voice rasped from the shadows that seemed to be so abundant in this palace.

Allura whirled around with a flurry of bubbles. “I’m so sorry, I’ll leave at once!”

“I did not say you had to leave,” the voice spoke again. “I only said that you would not find what you are looking for here.”

Allura peered into the shadows. “Then… do you know where I will find it?”

“Come with me.”

Whoever it was seemed to move only in the shadows, their silhouette barely visible to Allura. She hesitated for only a second before following. As it was, she thought she heard some of the servants looking for her approaching the library. If she was going to avoid getting caught anyways, she may as well follow this person who seemed to know what Allura needed, and where she could find it.

The shadows seemed to crowd in closer as Allura followed the stranger. There was no telling if the sun had even risen yet. Allura let herself hope that it hadn’t, that time would slow down enough for her to find a viable solution. Another part of her, tired and far more cynical, said that if the sun hadn’t risen yet, it was about to. Allura made a point to ignore it.

The stranger led her to a darkened room, so dark that Allura couldn’t make out any of the features. Then the stranger lit a bioluminescent lamp, and Allura gasped, not at the room, but at the stranger themself. They were not a cecaelia.

They were a mermaid.

A very old mermaid at that, with hair as white as Allura’s and graying scales on her tail. Her eyes were dim, and had a constant, glazed-over look. She gestured for Allura to take a seat, as she herself took one. Allura waited as patiently as possible.

“There is no record of alchemy in the archives here,” the mermaid told Allura. “Zarkon is many things, but he does not lie. He only leaves things out as it suits him.”

“And what, pray tell, has he left out?”

The old mermaid hummed, as though she were unsure where to start.

“You know that Zarkon had an heir, yes?” she asked.

“I had heard rumors, but I was never certain of their validity,” Allura admitted.

The mermaid nodded. “They’re true, I’m afraid. Zarkon had--has a son. And he did indeed banish that son after an alchemical experiment gone wrong. After that, Zarkon destroyed all records of alchemy in the archives.”

“What happened?”

The old mermaid leaned back in her seat, looking reminiscent, and a touch melancholic. She took a deep, shuddering breath. Her health seemed to be about as good as Zarkon’s, Allura thought.

“He was a good boy. His heart was in the right place. He and his mother wanted to revive the art of alchemy for Zarkon’s sake. His mother had long had a curiosity regarding alchemy, and that curiosity only strengthened when she found that it was a shared interest between her and her son. Zarkon supported their academic pursuits. They both had bright minds, and he was proud of them.”

The mermaid sighed. Allura’s attention was rapt.

“Then the emperor’s health began to decline more rapidly. His son and wife began to hasten their experiments, at the expense of safety. For a while, there were no severe consequences, but the emperor started to become nervous. It was clear that the experiments were taking a toll on his family, but they would not stop. I wonder if they would’ve had they know the truth of alchemy,” the mermaid recounted.

“And… what is the truth of alchemy?”

The mermaid’s eyes narrowed. “The truth of alchemy is that, unlike magic, it is not a gift to be given freely. There is always a cost, an exchange. But neither the prince nor his mother knew this when they decided they were ready heal their emperor with alchemy. The records in the archive were not as complete as they should’ve been. When they tried to heal Zarkon… it went badly.”

“How badly?”

The mermaid did not immediately answer. Allura tried and failed to keep her tail from twitching impatiently.

“Zarkon’s wife died. In theory she knew what was happening as it was happening, but pressed forward anyways. This was her husband, after all. Zarkon was distraught, and demanded that his son undo the process at once, his own health be damned. His son argued that his mother only wanted to see him well again, but his father forced him into it anyways. Alchemy is not meant to revive people. The prince, having studied alchemy extensively, understood this. Zarkon could not, or rather… perhaps he didn’t want to understand. All he wanted was his wife back. His son wanted his mother back, but he knew it might not work. He tried anyways.”

The mermaid paused again. Her sorrow made her deeply lined face seem even more weathered.

“It worked--in a way. She was not the person she had once been, and she ailed as much as Zarkon did. She did not remember her son or husband. Zarkon was furious. He blamed his son for her state, though his son had warned him that it might not work the way they wanted. In spite of the prince having the best intentions… Zarkon banished his only child. Thus rejected by his only remaining family, the prince became embittered… There are few who know his whereabouts these days, but I would not be surprised if his solitude has only served to further foster his resentment.”

“That’s awful,” Allura breathed.

“Indeed,” the mermaid said with a nod. “And now there is no one left who remembers.”

“But you remember, surely you must know something about alchemy--”

“I have told you all that I know.”

“But… there has to be more,” Allura lamented.

“What for?” the mermaid inquired.

“I--” Allura stammered. “I’m not trying to bring anyone back from the dead!”

“But you are trying to prevent death, aren’t you?”

Allura leapt up from her seat, heart hammering painfully against her ribs. This wasn’t the same, not in the slightest!

“Thank you for your time and insight,” Allura said through clenched teeth. “But I’m afraid I must be going now.”

The old mermaid nodded. “Very well. But princess, remember, alchemy will take if something is not given. And there is no telling what it will take.”

~*~ 

To say Lance was impatient for Keith to return was a bit of an understatement. He’d done as Keith bid him and changed into dry, warm clothes, but it offered little relief for his frazzled nerves. Lotor’s mermaids were attacking humans, including Lance himself, and now merfolk as a whole were to blame. More than anything Lance wished he’d traded something other than his voice, anything, so that he could explain to Keith precisely what was going on.

Restless as he was, Lance found he just couldn’t wait quietly in his room. He’d been fascinated by the bed the night before; now there was simply too much on his mind to even give it a second glance. He took to wandering the large halls of the castle. They looked so different at night. They didn’t gleam or shine, and they felt larger than Lance remembered. Nighttime, he surmised, must get very lonely in this castle. His own home was smaller, but at the same time more open. Even there Lance had managed to feel lonely at times.

He ended up meandering into a cozy sitting room, lined with books he couldn’t read and lit, as much of the rest of the castle was, with a candle. Here was something that sparked his curiosity once more. Lance had always been fascinated by candles and the tiny flames that seemed to dance atop them, but he hadn’t had time to investigate more closely. Now was his chance, it seemed.

Lance gazed into the flame for a long while. It moved so much like water. Subject to its own whims, and seeming so very alive. It stirred something nostalgic deep within Lance, a sort of longing for the home he’d left behind. He scowled. Now was not the time for regrets. He turned his attention back to the flame.

Unlike water, fire radiated a warmth and light all its own. It drew Lance in, and he was helpless to resist. He raised a hand in a cradling motion, letting the heat seep into his skin. There was nothing so gently warm underneath the water. Lance poised a finger just above the flame, wondering how close he could get to it.

“Lance!”

Lance jumped, and then felt a searing pain on his finger. He withdrew his hand sharply, silently hissing as the pain really settled in. Keith was by his side in an instant. He took Lance’s hand in his, studying the injury intently.

“What are you doing sticking your fingers in fire anyways?” Keith muttered, rubbing his fingers over the pad of Lance’s finger.

Lance made no move to answer.

“I was a little worried when I couldn’t find you at first,” Keith continued, not yet looking up at Lance. “Can’t blame you for not wanting to sit still though. Are you alright? Do you need a doctor to look at anything?”

Keith looked up and Lance shook his head.

Keith sighed and looked away again, his lips pressed together in contemplation. He was still holding Lance’s hand. Lance made no move to change this.

“Lance,” he began. “I’m going with our men to the east tomorrow afternoon.”

Lance felt as though he’d been punched in the chest. Keith was leaving?! He shook his head vigorously, clasping Keith’s hands tightly as though to physically prevent him from leaving. Keith smiled gently; Lance frowned.

“I know it’s dangerous, but--Lance, listen to me--I have to do this. It’s my responsibility as a prince. I know you’re worried but I’ll be back. And… well, I was wondering if you would wait for me?”

Before Lance could even shake his head, his eyes were overflowing again. It didn’t help that it seemed to concern Keith this time. Keith used his free hand to tilt Lance’s face towards his, forcing their eyes to meet. The flame of the candle was reflected clearly in Keith’s eyes, not unlike a bright star in the night sky. Lance didn’t want to look.

“Lance, what’s wrong?”

Lance shook his head; it was all he could do.

“You don’t want me to go?”

Lance nodded.

“Is it because of the merfolk?”

Lance shrugged. It was difficult to articulate that it was only a few merfolk in particular that concerned him, and that Keith should not seek to fight against merfolk as a whole. Not to mention explaining why he so firmly believed that.

“Lance, they couldn’t drown me today, and they won’t drown me tomorrow, okay? I promise.”

Don’t go, Lance silently begged.

“Besides,” Keith continued in a low voice. He brought Lance’s still-stinging finger up to his smiling lips, letting them brush across the tender skin. “That’s twice now I should’ve drowned, but I didn’t. I think I know why.”

Don’t go, Lance’s absent voice screamed.

“I think it’s because my heart belongs to the sea.”

Don’t go.

“And the sea won’t let me drown.”

Don’t go!

“I’m certain of that now,” Keith said. He punctuated the statement with a press of his lips to the pad of Lance’s finger.

Don’t go!

Their eyes met like a crack of lightning, and Keith stumbled back as though pushed, Lance’s hand slipping out of his. He fell to the floor without a sound. When he sat up, his eyes were unfocused, his mouth agape. Lance felt his heart rapping a staccato beat against his chest, sharp and insistent. He held out a hand to help Keith up, but Keith hardly noticed it.

“I won’t,” Keith mumbled. “I won’t… go? I won’t--no! I’m--I have to go!”

He stood up without taking Lance’s hand. The distrust that had briefly flared up in the lagoon had flared up in full force once again. Lance thought to shake his head again, to say that whatever had just happened wasn’t his fault! He wasn’t even sure what had just happened! Instead he just stood there, wishing that Keith would look at him again, for all that just a moment ago Lance wanted him to look anywhere else.

Keith stumbled over his words when he spoke again, “I’ll come back. I promise. And I really hope you’re here when I do.”

Without another word Keith hurried out of the room. Lance slumped against his seat, eyes still spilling over as though his emotions were simply too much for his body to hold in. There was no telling how long he sat there for, but it was long enough that the candle he’d been watching had melted down to a puddle. By then, Lance felt utterly dried up. His head was throbbing, he felt exhausted, but hated the idea of going to sleep.

So instead, Lance watched the candle as it flickered wildly, desperately hanging on to the last vestiges of its life. He watched the wick get shorter and shorter, as the flame consumed it. He watched as the flame finally reached its end, and with a sudden puff, was extinguished.

Even then, Lance remained.

~*~

When Allura returned home, the sun was nearly directly overhead. It only further served to emphasize her utter failure. She had only hours and counting. What could she possibly do in that time to help Lance?

“Princess,” a steward greeted before she had even properly settled herself after her journey. “I hate to bother you so soon after your return, but there is someone to see you. He’s been insistent ever since he arrived.”

Allura had just opened her mouth to ask who in the seven seas could possibly want to see her, now of all times, when Hunk barrelled around the corner. The steward was utterly horrified by the lack of decorum. Hunk couldn’t be bothered to care. And if Hunk couldn’t be bothered to care about appearing respectful to a princess…

“What happened?” she asked immediately, waving the steward off.

Hunk spoke in a horrified, hushed tone. “Lotor sent his mermaids to drown Keith and Lance.”

“He did what?!” Allura exclaimed. Then, more quietly, “Is Lance…?”

“He’s fine, they’re both fine, luckily I was nearby and they didn’t seem to want to deal with me, but the fact that they were there at all…” Hunk trailed off, the implication all too obvious.

“Lotor doesn’t want Lance succeeding,” Allura whispered anyways.

“But why?” Hunk asked.

Allura’s brow furrowed, everything she’d learned in the past two days all coming together in a messed up jumble that she could hardly make heads or tails of. One thing was certain though. Lotor was playing dirty, at the expense of Lance’s life. And Allura wouldn’t stand for it.

“I don’t know,” she finally said, darting back towards the exit of the castle. “But we’re going to find out.”

~*~

A shell of bright blue gleamed under the midday sun. It seemed like a perfectly ordinary, if perhaps an unusually well preserved shell. Any passerby might pick it up and think it a rather pretty trinket. And, upon doing so, would marvel at how warm it felt, at how it seemed to thrum with life. They would peer inside and find it empty.

Unless, of course, they knew what they were looking for.

Lotor turned the shell over and over in his hand, looking bored but with a touch of simmering ferocity. Anyone who knew him might think him angry. As it was, there were few that knew him. Fewer still that would not recoil as he gripped the shell hard enough that it might break. It didn’t.

Two distinct shadows slipped silently into the cove of Lotor’s agitated repose. He didn’t spare them a glance, instead keeping his attention fixed on the shell in his hand.

“Acxa, Zethrid,” Lotor greeted in a clipped tone.

“Lotor,” one of them began. “We—”

“Failed,” Lotor interrupted. “I’m well aware.”

Silence descended upon the cove once more. The mermaids did not swish their tails nervously, nor did they keep unusually still. To any outside onlookers, it might seem that they felt perfectly at ease with this turn of events.

“No matter,” Lotor said suddenly. “You did, at the very least, prevent the princeling from accomplishing his goal. And today is his final day.”

“What if he manages it on land?” Acxa asked.

“I doubt they’ll have much time for romance, what with the trouble Narti and Ezor are stirring up,” Zethrid noted with a fierce grin.

“Indeed,” Lotor agreed. “Narti has relayed that a commission of ships has be sent to assess the problem in those waters, and should be arriving close to sunset. And even if you did fail, you have at the very least given them a reason to expedite their plans.”

Lotor smirked maliciously, eyeing the shining shell once more. “Regardless of what happens, by sunset the silvertongue gift will be mine in its entirety.”

“And then you’ll have no trouble taking advantage of the chaos that’s about to take hold of all underwater kingdoms,” Acxa added confidently.

They quieted as a small, but definite shuffling could be heard from just outside the cove. Lotor had only to motion discreetly with his eyes, and Acxa and Zethrid immediately moved to investigate. Lotor himself did not bother to move, but looked far less agitated as sounds of a struggle were shortly heard.

“You again!” he heard Zethrid snarl.

“I beat you before, I—I can do it again!”

Zethrid could be heard laughing. “You think you actually beat me?”

“Leave him alone—!”

The scuffle lasted for only another moment. Then Acxa and Zethrid dragged two still struggling intruders before Lotor. Their shining, brightly colored tails were a sharp contrast to the cooler colors worn by their captors. Those tails thrashed wildly to no avail.

“Well, well,” Lotor began. “What a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe this exceptional honor, Princess Allura?”

“You won’t get away with what you’re up to, Lotor!” Allura spat. “We’ve figured you out!”

“Have you now? And I suppose you’ve alerted all underwater kingdoms, told them to beware of my trickery?”

Allura faltered. It was brief, almost invisible to the untrained eye. She recovered lightning fast, and opened her mouth to retort when Lotor held up a hand.

“Don’t waste my time with bluffing. The two of you came here alone, and no one knows you’re here,” Lotor said.

“You still won’t get away with this!” the golden tailed one, Hunk, insisted though he trembled. 

Lotor leaned back idly, tentacles curling in amusement. “Won’t I?”

“You won’t,” Allura said, almost more to convince herself.

“So you say,” Lotor said. “But fear scrambles reason. Fear will convince your friends that their dear little prince has been poached by humans. Fear is what will send them running to me when your kingdom finds that their one and only beloved princess has been speared by humans. Fear is what will unify them against humans, under my rule. Fear is what will return me my birthright.”

“And what makes you think any merfolk, or even any cecaelia, would be so easily swayed? They’re not so foolish as to give in to fear that easily! They’d never follow you! Not like this!” Allura shouted, straining against Acxa’s grip.

“Perhaps not,” Lotor amended with a nod. He brandished the shell. “Perhaps all they would need is a gentle nudge in the right direction. After sunset tonight, I’ll be more than able to give them just that.”

He glanced up at Acxa and Zethrid. “Take them to where Ezor and Narti are. Make sure the humans find them. I hope I don’t need to say that a second failure will not be tolerated, regardless of what the circumstances are.”

Acxa and Zethrid nodded obediently, and dragged their captives away. Lotor returned to considering the shell in his hand, this time smiling in an almost eager fashion. All he had to do was be patient for a little while longer. Only a few more hours, and the seven seas would be his for the taking.

All he had to do was wait. And make sure that the little princeling failed.

~*~

Keith didn’t see Lance before leaving.

Not for lack of trying, of course. Keith was up before the sun, and instead of getting something to eat or even checking to see how preparations for departure were going, he went straight to Lance’s room. He didn’t even know what he wanted to say. He’d been a little vague the night before, he knew, but had promised himself he would make everything crystal clear once he returned. So then, what was there for Keith to say? Maybe he wanted to ask about that strange feeling that had overcome him when he’d fallen over suddenly, that sudden urge to simply not do as he intended. Maybe he wanted to ask Lance where he’d come from, and why he’d come here, of all places, or if he had even intended to come here at all!

All these possible questions (which Keith wasn’t even sure he wanted ask anyways) were for naught. Lance wasn’t in his room. Keith tried not to be surprised, but they had been up pretty late the night before. The first place he checked was the sitting room they’d been in the night before, thinking that Lance had accidentally fallen asleep there. All Keith found was a puddle of wax that had once been the candle Lance burned his finger with.

So Keith took to wandering through the many massive halls of his lifelong home in search of a single person. He knew from past experience that it was a pain. He checked the kitchens, grabbing a small bite to eat when he found that Lance wasn’t there. None of the cooks had seen him either. He tried the dining room where Lance had joined them for dinner the first evening of his stay, thinking that if Lance had gotten lost he might stick to the first familiar place he found. No such luck. Keith felt a lead weight beginning to collect in his gut.

It didn’t help that Keith couldn’t dedicate too much of his time to looking for Lance. He asked any servant he came across if they’d seen Lance, and if they hadn’t, to keep an eye out for him. By the time Keith finally went out to inspect the ships, he very likely had the entire castle staff on the lookout. Still there was no word as he walked down to the docks. The sun was now fully over the horizon. Only a few more hours until Keith left.

Keith threw himself headfirst into preparations. Adam had gotten the librarians out in full force at the first light of day, scouring their records for anything and everything regarding mermaids. By the time Keith went down to conduct inspections the ships were being outfitted with extra harpoons and nets made of extra sturdy material. Three small boxes were waiting at the docks when Keith arrived. They were full of earplugs, a pair for each crewmember.

“Your Highness,” a curt greeting got Keith’s attention. Behind him were captains of two of the ships set to leave, Griffin and Kinkade.

Keith greeted them in an equally brisk manner. “How are things proceeding?”

“Smoothly, even with your decision to suddenly join in on the fun,” Griffin answered in a flat tone.

Keith raised an eyebrow. Griffin mirrored the action.

“We were told to expect to be at sea for no more than a week, so stocking rations has been easy enough,” Kinkade continued, smoothly cutting in between the two of them. “All the ships are ready to go in that sense. Right now we have the crews installing the harpoons and checking the nets to be sure that they’re secure. I expect you’ll be wanting to do an inspection of all the ships?”

Keith nodded, and the tedious work began. The sun rose steadily in the sky, beating down insistently on them. The ships and the crews that tended to them were impeccable. The captain of the flagship, the ship Keith would be aboard, was a gruff man that Keith had known much of his life. He’d butted heads with Iverson as a child, but now they had a mutual respect for one another. Unfortunately, that respect seemed to be eroding on Iverson’s end.

“Your Highness, you’re not actually taking the idea of mermaids seriously, are you?” Iverson asked, careful to keep his tone in check. “These country folk are out to make a fool of you.”

“So I thought, captain, until a mermaid tried to drown me last night,” Keith said plainly.

Iverson faltered at that. “You’re not serious.”

“Captain, as long as you’ve known me, have I ever joked like this?”

Iverson considered that. He was still wrestling with the idea when he slowly replied, “You’d cause trouble sometimes, but no, you’d never tell tall tales.”

Keith nodded, and moved to continue the inspection of the flagship. It was impeccable, of course. Iverson wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less. No doubt he’d had the crew give the entire ship an extra scrub down when word arrived that Keith would be joining them. They would not love Keith for that, but he could worry about that later.

“My grandfather liked to tell stories about mermaids, saying he’d seen them before,” Iverson commented.

“What did he say about them?”

“Only what every other storybook might tell you. That they were strange and beautiful and alluring, but he always added that even being half-fish merfolk weren’t so different from us. I always wrote it off as stories he liked to tell to entertain us kids, and then when he kept telling them as we got older I wrote it off as old age,” Iverson explained.

“He never gave details?” Keith prompted.

Iverson hummed. “He did like to tell a story about one merman in particular. I think he said his name was Dain or something of the sort. He’d tell us about how they were great friends, and often liked to meet up in shallow waters at low tide and trade food while talking about anything and everything. And then, he said, one day Dain stopped showing up. My grandfather didn’t know what to make of it, but he often liked to go down to the shore, saying that he hoped to see his friend again one day.”

“That’s… sad,” Keith offered lamely.

“It is, so long as it’s real,” Iverson replied with a shrug.

Keith chose not to respond to that statement. Iverson would see soon enough. In the meantime, there was an inspection to finish. When Keith stepped back onto the docks, Shiro was there. The sun was rapidly approaching its peak in the sky.

“How are things going?” Shiro asked in a low voice.

“As well as they can be, even with last minute additions,” Keith answered. His eyes glanced back towards the castle. He might have time to look around one last time--

“I hear you’ve been looking for Lance,” Shiro said. “There doesn’t seem to be a single person in the castle that you haven’t personally ordered to keep an eye out for him.”

Keith frowned. “I just… wanted to see him before I left.”

Shiro waited for him to continue without saying a word. Keith cursed Shiro’s seemingly limitless patience.

“I… last night I told him I’d be coming along this mission. He was upset, but I asked him if he would wait for me to come back. I guess I have my answer,” Keith explained, scowling.

Shiro put a reassuring hand on Keith’s shoulder. “I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

“Sure,” Keith huffed. He shrugged Shiro’s hand off of him. “I need to get ready to leave.”

He did not search the castle a second time. None of the castle staff, from servant to steward, from maid to matron, had seen hide nor hair of Lance. Keith tried to tell himself he didn’t care, that Lance wasn’t obligated to stay. He never had been. Lance likely had a home, a family he wanted to get back to. As enthusiastic as he seemed, Keith considered for the first time that Lance might’ve been indulging Keith.

Still, there was some hope that he’d get to see Lance at least once before he left. That Lance would stop him as he walked out of the castle. That Lance would run after him on the docks. That Lance would appear, waving frantically as the ship shoved off. That Keith would see a lone figure on the increasingly distant shore, and somehow know in his heart who it was.

The sun was well overhead. The ships were out on open water, and all of Keith’s hopes had been in vain.

Out on open water, even people as sensible as Iverson became superstitious. Every once in a while Keith spotted more than one sailor peering down at the water. Keith himself was helpless against the paranoia brewing just underneath his skin. The cut on his face prickled uncomfortably under the bandage. Nothing jumped out of the water with alluring songs that threatened to draw them overboard. Even so, earplugs were passed out well before they reached the designated area.

Sometimes land peeked over the horizon. Most often it was out of sight, but never out of mind. The only indication that time was passing at all was the sinking of the sun towards the horizon. It was just about to dip into the ocean when the ships turned towards the land. Once it came into view, a silhouette of a prominent lighthouse, one built for the express purpose of dividing the coastline into distinct sections. These were officially eastern waters.

The tension on the ship instantly spiked. Keith could feel it in the air, almost as thick as the salt on the wind. Some sailors tried to joke about it, to break up the anxiety that settled on everyone’s shoulders. The other two ships pulled ahead of the flagship. The three ships would be stretched out in a loose line of patrol. Any trouble they encountered, they would face with only the men they shared a ship with. That the land was so near was not a solace as it would normally be.

Fishing boats were hurrying towards land as the sun was setting. Some of the sailors waved, clearly glad that they were being taken seriously by their rulers. Others looked on with solemn faces, deeply lined and weathered from years of sailing. The lines were deepened by duress. They left Keith feeling particularly unsettled.

The sun was halfway under the horizon. The ship had been drifting idly. The sailors were a bit more at ease. Several of them urged Keith to relax too. He couldn’t. He gripped the railing tightly, staring intently at the waters. He was certain of what happened to him. He knew what lurked in the fathoms below.

Finally, something happened.

It started with excited shouting towards the stern. Keith was there in an instant. Something huge was tugging at the nets they’d cast. Some were shouting that it was no fish. Keith was right beside the sailors struggling to pull the net up. Whatever it was was struggling harder than Keith had ever come across. His heart was thudding painfully in his chest. This was the moment. The moment that would prove him rightfully vigilant or unnecessarily paranoid.

When the net finally breached the surface with its haul, Keith and several other sailors nearly dropped it right back in. The entire crew was in an uproar. Behind him, Keith saw that Iverson was stunned into a stony silence. Tangled within the nets were two people--no, the crew collectively corrected themselves as their eyes fell upon two vividly colored tails.

Two merfolk. Undeniably real, and struggling against the reinforced netting. Iverson shook himself from his stupor long enough to shout at everyone to put in their earplugs. Keith and the sailors holding up the net couldn’t. If the merfolk tried anything though, there were enough able-bodied crew members to keep them from throwing themselves overboard.

“Let us go!” the white-haired mermaid with a radiant pink tail not unlike that of a lion-fish snarled. “We’re not the ones that have been drowning your people!”

Keith set himself, passing his length of rope to a nearby sailor.

“Why should we trust you?”

“Okay, I know there’s no reason you should trust us, but consider: you’ll make things a lot worse for yourself if you do anything to us,” the golden tailed merman insisted.

They seemed sincere to Keith. Perhaps that was the trick. Keith was resolved to not be drawn in so easily. 

The sunset was casting a fiery glow across the waters.

“If you’re not the ones drowning our people, then who is?” Keith demanded.

Behind him, the crew was clamoring about something, no doubt thinking that the merfolk should be speared and strung up by their tails without delay. Keith was of a different mindset, it seemed. If he could get any information out of them, he would.

“Mermaids in the employ of a sea-witch, a cecaelia,” the lion-fish mermaid explained.

Iverson was shouting about something. Keith tuned him out as best he could.

Keith scoffed. “You really expect me to believe that?”

It almost sounded like someone was shouting back at Iverson, which Keith knew was impossible because Iverson did not tolerate insubordination of any sort. Keith kept to ignoring what was going on.

“Well, yeah,” the golden-tailed merman said. “That’s kind of why we’re telling you at all. That, and we don’t want you to skewer us. Please don’t skewer us.”

There were sounds of a scuffle behind Keith, one that he could no longer ignore. Keith huffed. He didn’t have time for this. He commanded the sailors at the net to hold their captives securely and turned around just in time to see Lance charging towards him with a knife in hand, a wild but determined look in his shining eyes. Keith dove out of the way, but Lance made for the net. With an incredible swing, Lance sliced through the rope holding the merfolk. It snapped without delay. The merfolk tumbled back down to the water.

There was a moment of dumbfounded silence. Lance looked out at the crew with steely resolve. Keith gaped at him like a fish out of water. The crew exploded with a vitriolic mix of fury and fear. Lance’s expression did not change. He held himself almost regally, Keith thought distantly. That was, until several members of the crew moved forward, threatening to throw him overboard since he was so keen on merfolk anyhow. Towards the middle of the deck, Keith heard Pidge shouting his name, trying to tell him something. He couldn’t hear them.

Shouting from the water had caught Keith’s attention instead.

“Lance!” the white-haired mermaid was shrieking. “Lance! You have to warn Lance! It’s Lotor! He--!”

But she disappeared under the water before she could relay her warning. Storm clouds were gathering on the horizon. The sun was still casting its last few desperate rays over the water. The angry shouting of the crew turned into a frenzied panic. Keith whirled around to see what was happening.

The crew had retreated midship. On the railing, across the ship from Keith, several tentacles were curling over the railing. Something was pulling itself up. Scratch that, Keith’s mind numbly informed him only a second later, someone. Someone not entirely unlike a merman, but with tentacles instead of a fish tail. He looked devilishly handsome, but wore an expression that twisted his refined features into something ugly. He was looking right at Lance.

“My dear, little princeling,” he rumbled, low and threatening. “You’ve worn my patience down to its sinew. I would wait for the sunset to finish you, but I’m certain you’d only find more ways to agitate me in that time.”

He advanced on Lance all the while. Lance seemed genuinely afraid, gripping the knife in his hand like a lifeline.

“It seems, then, that I’ll just have to finish you myself!”

~*~

When Allura and Hunk were caught by the mermaids working for Lotor and subsequently dragged away to be offered up as bait to humans, the sun was just starting to dip down in the sky. Allura’s exhaustion caught up to her in full force. Acxa was able to hold her down on her own, while Ezor and Zethrid held down Hunk (who struggled until he wore himself ragged). A fourth mermaid, a deep-sea mermaid that did not see as the rest of them did, could be seen prowling about. Allura guessed that she was keeping watch for the humans in whatever way she saw things.

Hunk and Allura were prevented from speaking to each other. Any time they tried to talk to one another, or even to the mermaids holding them captive they were promptly and harshly silenced. There was nothing for them to do but wait as the sun crawled steadily across the sky above.

Tired as she was, Allura’s consciousness wavered the entire time. Even then she was trying to think of a way out of this situation. There wasn’t much time left. The mermaids were murmuring among themselves. Allura could hardly make out what they were saying. Her eyes were burning. Disjointed thoughts drifted through her mind as idly as the current around them.

The light was beginning to fade when Narti returned again, this time making particular motions with her hands. Acxa’s grip on Allura tightened, and Zethrid grinned maliciously. Allura supposed the humans had arrived. Her head was throbbing. She had to think of something. A quick glance at Hunk told her he was thinking the same thing. Thankfully, the mermaids didn’t yet shove them to the surface.

“The human prince is with them?” Allura heard Ezor trill through the fog of her fatigue.

“Ezor, hush,” Acxa scolded lightly.

Allura’s thoughts started to align themselves more coherently. A human prince; they most likely meant Keith. And where Keith was, Lance was likely not far behind, but Allura wasn’t able to glean any more of what Narti was saying from the others. Had he managed to get his kiss? Or was he still working on it? Judging by the sunlight filtering through the water, if Lance still hadn’t gotten that kiss, he was cutting it awfully close.

“Do we get to drown the human prince?!” Zethrid asked eagerly.

“Zethrid, keep quiet,” Acxa insisted.

“What does it matter? It’s not like they can do anything!” Zethrid retorted, giving Hunk a light shake.

“It’s not like Lotor can either,” Allura snapped suddenly.

Acxa tightened her grip on Allura painfully. “Be quiet.”

“I’m really warning you for your own good.”

“Don’t bother. We know that no one knows where you are,” Ezor piped. “By the time they do find you, it’ll be too late.”

Allura rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I was talking about. His plan is going to fail.”

“How? He’s got the silvertongue, and as soon as your little friend is dead and gone, it’ll be all his,” Ezor said before being silenced again by Acxa.

The thoughts whirling around in Allura’s head were a messy jumble of everything she’d learned in the last two days, but occasionally she was able to pluck something from it, something that could fit together with the last idea she’d grabbed. She had to speak quickly and with confidence.

“What makes him so sure? What does he know about real magic?” Allura demanded.

Acxa twisted Allura’s arm hard. “I said be quiet.”

“He doesn’t have the silvertongue,” Allura continued anyways. “And he never will.”

None of the mermaids responded to Allura, but she saw them shift uncomfortably. Narti moved as though to look Allura in the eyes, but having no eyes of her own, it was a little disconcerting. Allura didn’t waver. It was like the answer she’d been scrambling for these past two days was finally within reach, right on the tip of her tongue, but it was almost too late to have found it. Almost.

“Besides, you haven’t been able to keep an eye on Lance this whole time. What makes Lotor so certain that he hasn’t already gotten the kiss he needs? The sun could set, and whether you drown the human prince or not won’t matter, because Lance’s life is already assured.”

Allura was rambling, she knew. Anything to buy herself and Hunk some time. At least the mermaids were letting her talk now.

“Interesting theories, princess,” a familiar voice drawled.

Allura’s mouth snapped shut.

“By all means, please tell me what you’ve learned about the silvertongue gift,” Lotor insisted as he slipped out of the shadows. Had he been there all along?! “It’s so hard to come across reliable sources on magic these days, but I understand that your kingdom has an extensive collection.”

The shell that Lotor had been considering the night before was now attached to a thick cord strung around his neck. His gleaming eyes were intent on Allura. Allura pressed her lips tightly together. The sight of Lotor plucking Lance’s voice right out of his throat was suddenly vivid in her mind’s eye.

“No need to get so shy now,” Lotor crooned, leaning in threateningly. “But if you need some encouragement, I’m more than willing to provide.”

~*~

The sun was rising on the third day. Lance was standing ankle deep in the shallow sea water, swaying with the waves. Lance supposed he should’ve at least tried to sleep, but he just didn’t see the point of it. His mind was far too consumed with the steady climbing of the sun above the horizon. Too consumed with how little time he had left. With what had happened the night before

Lance had been a child when his silvertongue gift had supposedly made itself apparent. A child, but on the cusp of adulthood. His family fondly teased him, calling him a little guppy. More than once Lance had gotten in trouble for fighting with his siblings. They would get in trouble for teasing him too much.

(Lance smiled at the memories.)

A stuffy diplomat from a deeper kingdom had come around. Having so many children to teach, Lance’s parents rotated which children attended meetings with them, with the exception of Veronica, who was first in line for the throne and always, insistently present. That day had been Lance’s turn. Veronica had already glared at him for fidgeting several times. Lance couldn’t help it. The diplomat had been deathly boring!

Deathly boring though the diplomat was, with nothing else to do, Lance found himself actually listening to the diplomat. He was from a deep water kingdom, a rather large and enterprising one at that. The kingdom that Lance’s family ruled was quite small in comparison. Young and aloof as he was, Lance knew that much.

Lance also knew, as soon as he started listening to the diplomat, that he didn’t like this merman. He was an aggressive negotiator. That was, he had an idea of what he expected, and would accept nothing less. More than once he’d shut down Veronica, and Lance didn’t like that one bit. Even his parents were having some difficulty in getting a word in with the diplomat. It was grating on Lance’s nerves.

It was when the diplomat shut Veronica down for the fourth or fifth time that Lance finally snapped. He shot up from his seat, startling all the adults in the room. Beside him, Veronica tried to get him to sit down again.

“Let her speak!” Lance commanded, sounding older than his years. “How do you expect to get any negotiating done when you won’t let anyone else speak?! One day Veronica will be queen and you’ll have no choice but to speak to her. Get used to it, now.”

Everyone in the room had been stunned, but none so much as the diplomat, who had gone slack-jawed and glassy eyed. Veronica moved to usher Lance out of the room while their parents readied apologies that Lance was convinced were unnecessary. The guy had it coming. Before any of that could happen, however, the diplomat spoke in a manner quite different from the way he’d been speaking only a moment before.

“Yes, of course, your Highness,” he’d droned.

The silence stretched on longer as everyone processed what had just happened. Lance felt a swell of pride at the time, not knowing the effect the moment would have on his entire life. The diplomat shook his head. He looked just as confused as everyone else in the room. He cleared his throat, and continued speaking. For the rest of the meeting, he was much more courteous, and Lance’s parents and Veronica were finally able to make some ground with him. He watched Lance with a wary eye the entire time.

Afterwards, the adults around Lance began whispering. They tried to hide it from him, but Lance heard more than they intended. It was only a matter of time before he outright asked one of them what, exactly, a silvertongue was.

Lance attended more meetings after that, all the adults looking expectantly at him all the while. But what had happened with that one diplomat never happened again. At least not as far as Lance noticed. Certainly he picked up on the art of diplomacy through all those meetings and negotiations, but everyone around him attributed that to his silvertongue gift. So, naturally, Lance began to resent it. He resented it so much that he jumped at the opportunity to get rid of it.

Or so he thought.

Keith had been swayed. It was only for an instant, and Lance hadn’t uttered a word, but it had happened all the same. Lance felt awful. Even if he hadn’t ultimately changed Keith’s mind, he almost had. Had there been times, in the past two days, when he’d been successful without even realizing it? After all, Keith had no real reason to be so interested in him. Lance was a stranger to him. A stranger that was hopelessly, foolishly in love with him.

Lance breathed in the ocean breeze that swept over him. He tried to quiet his thoughts, morbid as they were, but in the absence of his own voice, they seemed to scream.

“Lance!”

He jumped, having thought himself completely alone. He turned to see Pidge sprinting towards him. They stopped a few feet away, bent double as they tried to catch their breath.

“Keith is leaving,” they wheezed.

Lance nodded.

“You knew?!” they exclaimed. Then they grabbed Lance by the wrist. “Whatever, Keith is looking for you! If you hurry you might--”

They stopped short when Lance tugged against them, not following. They looked back at him, utterly confused.

“Lance, what are you doing? If you don’t kiss him, you’ll turn to seafoam. You’ll… I don’t want you to die,” Pidge pleaded softly.

Lance shook his head. He was too tired to try and explain everything with vague gestures. There was simply too much.

“I don’t understand,” Pidge said.

Lance didn’t move to explain.

“Lance, where’s Hunk?”

Lance made a vague motion out towards the sea.

“He’s gone…?” Pidge gasped. “But--no, he wouldn’t leave without a good reason, what happened?”

Lance shook his head.

“Lance, tell me what happened!”

Lance shook his head again, with a little more force.

“Lance!” Pidge demanded, their voice cracking. “You can’t give up! Not while the sun is still up!”

Lance turned back to the sea, gazing out towards the home he’d never get to see again. Pidge screeched in frustration and pushed Lance hard enough to knock him into an oncoming wave. The cold, salt water was a shock to Lance’s sun-warmed senses. He scowled at Pidge, who stood with fists clenched and shining eyes.

“You can’t just give up! I won’t let you! And if Hunk were here he wouldn’t let you either, and even though I don’t know her all that well, if Allura’s your friend she wouldn’t let you either!” Pidge cried as their eyes overflowed in a way that alarmed Lance. “I know there’s a lot going on right now, but you dying isn’t going to help anything!”

A knot tightened in Lance’s throat. He stood up and hugged Pidge tightly, a silent apology. Pidge clung to him as they shook a little. After a moment he pulled away and tried to wipe away the wetness from their face. He must’ve looked especially concerned, because they giggled a little at that.

“Do merfolk not cry?” they asked. “These are just tears, Lance. It happens when humans feel too much of something. It’s perfectly normal. Now get off of me, you’re soaked!”

In retaliation, Lance grabbed Pidge by the arms and tossed them right into the surf. They screamed at how cold it was, but they were laughing too. Lance couldn’t help but grin.

“Okay, now that we’re even,” Pidge griped. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Lance nodded, and crouched down to draw in the sand. Pidge crouched down beside him.

“You… and Keith? Yeah, that’s his mullet alright. Oh! This was at the lagoon last night? Okay… You guys were swimming… And two merfolk… Tried to drown you and Keith?! Is that why he’s going on this mission all of a sudden?!”

Lance nodded.

“Is it really merfolk drowning humans?” Pidge asked.

Lance pointed to his drawing of the mermaids that had attempted to drown himself and Keith. Then he drew a figure with far too many limbs. He tapped his throat, and then pointed back at the many-limbed drawing.

“The one who took your voice, the one who made you human… this sea-witch is doing it?”

Lance nodded.

“Why?!” Pidge asked in exasperation. “Doesn’t he know that humans will retaliate?”

Lance nodded again.

“He knows… but then why--Unless he wants to antagonize relations between humans and merfolk again?”

Slowly, for a third time, Lance nodded.

Pidge fell back to sit in the sand, holding their head in their hands. “This is so much bigger than I thought… I mean, I knew about the fisherman’s petition, but I also knew that Keith and Shiro didn’t really take it seriously, which is why I was so confused when Keith decided to go investigate for himself, but if he knows without a doubt that merfolk are real, and if he manages to find one--”

They stopped short and stood up. Lance followed, confused.

“We have to get on one of those ships,” they decided.

Lance agreed, but wasn’t sure how they would go about doing that. Pidge thankfully, was well practiced in the art of the stowaway.

It was almost midday. Lance and Pidge were crouched behind a large stack of crates. The crews of all three ships were assembled neatly on the docks before them. Keith was there, glancing frequently back towards the castle, but was otherwise a picturesque prince. Lance sighed quietly at the sight of him. Pidge tugged at the front of his shirt. According to them, they had a very narrow window of opportunity when it came to sneaking aboard a ship. In this case especially, the captain of the flagship was all too familiar with Pidge’s antics. Their only advantage, Pidge had explained, was that Iverson had no reason to expect that Pidge might join this expedition.

The crews were dismissed to finish preparing to shove off. Pidge tugged at Lance again. It was time to move. Lance stooped down to Pidge’s height, trying to remain unseen. They whispered to him to not do that. The key, they told him, was acting like they belonged. They found a smaller box marked for the cargo hold of the flagship. They took one end of it, and motioned for Lance to take the other. Together, they carried it right up the cargo ramp. No one spared them a second glance. Lance’s heart was hammering all the while.

Pidge led them through the cargo hold of the ship, taking the box towards the back where crates were already stacked high and tied securely in place. Pidge set the box down in a corner towards the back, and Lance followed suit. Then they settled themselves behind the box in the corner.

Lance blinked. Was it really this easy? Pidge grinned. Apparently it was.

Until it wasn’t.

“Hey, who brought this box in?” someone asked.

“Don’t know,” another voice grunted.

“They didn’t put it in the right place--don’t they know how Iverson is by now!” the first voice huffed.

Pidge and Lance retreated further into their corner. There was nowhere for them to go, nowhere to hide. All they could do was sink into the shadows and hope the sailor didn’t notice. Heavy footsteps were steadily approaching when Lance had an idea. He moved forward, putting himself in front of Pidge. They tugged at his shirt frantically, but Lance stilled them.

The sailor came into view. She stooped over, intending to drag the box over to where it was supposed to go, but stopped short. Something had caught her eye. She stood up, and her eyes locked with Lance’s.

Let us be, Lance thought with all his might. Pretend we aren’t here!

She opened her mouth, eyes widening.

Don’t see us! Lance insisted. It’s not worth the trouble!

Slowly, the sailor closed her mouth. Her eyes went out of focus, looking past Lance and Pidge. Lance continued to focus on the last thought, that it wasn’t worth the trouble, that it was someone else’s problem, that someone else would find them eventually. The sailor sighed. Then she bent over and began to drag the box away, without any indication that she’d seen them at all.

Behind him, Pidge breathed a sigh of relief.

“Was that magic?” Pidge asked incredulously.

Lance slumped against the wall and sank down. Part of him hadn’t actually expected that to work. He wasn’t sure how to feel about it, that he could exert his own will over someone else’s. That the silvertongue gift he’d rejected for so much of his life was actually something real that he could control.

He looked up at Pidge, who was still waiting for an answer, and nodded.

No more sailors came peeking into their corner. The cargo hold was shut into a stuffy and near-impenetrable darkness. Sailors migrated to the upper decks, their voices and footsteps becoming muffled above them. At some point the ship lurched; the sails had been dropped, the anchors raised. They were well on their way.

The only problem was, with no windows in the cargo hold, there was no telling where they were. No telling where the sun was in the sky. Pidge told Lance to leave it all to them. They crept through the darkness expertly, leaving Lance to his thoughts in that dark corner. Lance hoped they could come out of hiding soon.

Pidge came back quickly with an armful of food.

“Iverson always makes sure to over-prepare,” they explained, tossing Lance a chunk of bread. “It’s a bit past midday, so we’ve got a ways to go. I heard some of the crew saying we’d get there before sunset. I can probably get Keith by himself, and I don’t think it’d hurt to explain things to him now--”

Lance shook his head, a motion that Pidge could barely see.

“What do you mean, ‘no’? Keith is head over heels for you already, telling him what’s going on wouldn’t change that,” Pidge insisted.

Lance shook his head again, and then gestured to the space in front of them, miming a person walking away with two fingers. Then he vaguely motioned upwards, then towards himself, making a heart with his hands. He shook his head again.

It took Pidge a moment to get what he was trying to say. “You’re… not saying that you spelled Keith into loving you, are you?”

Lance shrugged.

“You don’t know? How do you--wait, do you mean you might’ve spelled him accidentally?”

Lance nodded.

Pidge bumped their head into the wall behind them, groaning in frustration.

“Lance, Keith is definitely not under the influence of any mer-magic,” Pidge half-laughed.

Lance made an uncertain motion with his hands.

“I saw you working that magic first-hand. That sailor looked like you fried her brain. There hasn’t been one moment that Keith has looked like that when looking at you. Trust me, I’ve been watching,” Pidge insisted.

Except for the night before, Lance thought to himself. Still, Pidge had a point. He couldn’t recall anytime that Keith had really seemed to lose focus around him. He always looked directly at Lance, fond and smiling. Lance smiled to himself. Pidge snorted.

“The both of you are hopeless,” they said. “So, of course, you’re perfect for each other.”

According to Pidge, they just had to wait for Keith to be alone before dragging him off to explain everything. It wouldn’t do either of them any good to be caught by the crew. They’d take them straight to Iverson, who wouldn’t bother listening to anything they had to say. All he would see were two stowaways, one of which was a known troublemaker. He would be sure to lock them up tight and keep them out of the way until they returned to land. There would be no getting to Keith then.

So they waited. Pidge scurried away every once in a while, leaving Lance to listen to the lull of waves just outside. Were it not for the tight deadline and everything else weighing on Lance’s mind, it would’ve been rather soothing, and all of this just another exciting adventure. It occurred to him during one of those quiet moments that he’d never been in a ship that hadn’t been sunk first. He wished he could explore it himself. Perhaps if everything went well, he could. He hugged his knees tightly to his chest; he was trying not to get too lost in the best case scenario.

Pidge came back after a tenth (eleventh? twentieth?) such excursion in the same manner they’d come back from all the others: unsuccessful and frustrated.

“He’s staying topside,” Pidge huffed. “There’s no way I can get his attention without getting spotted and the sun is setting!”

If Lance had a voice, he might’ve admitted that he was feeling uneasy in that moment. More than uneasy. He was scared, nauseatingly so. His hands felt like they were shaking, but when he held them up to look, they were perfectly still. Lance hugged himself tightly. If they could just get Keith’s attention without the rest of the crew noticing--

Lance perked up suddenly, hitting Pidge’s arm a little to hard in his excitement. He tapped his chest lightly, and then wiggled his fingers away. He covered his eyes and then ended with a double thumbs-up. Pidge stared.

“Oh!” they gasped after a moment. “You want to use your magic on anyone that might see us!”

Lance nodded eagerly. Now that he knew he had it, he decided he may as well use it.

“Alright then, let’s go, we don’t have much time!” Pidge urged.

Much as Lance wanted to be excited about seeing the rest of the ship, there was no more room in his chest for it. Pidge led the way with an air of certainty. Lance kept close, in case they came across any crew members. At first, everything was quiet. Good as that was for them, something about it didn’t sit well with Lance. It only served to agitate his nerves further.

Then the deck above them exploded with shouting. Something was happening. Lance and Pidge exchanged a quick glance. Someone ran down, calling for all hands on deck. Pidge looked at Lance. Moment of truth.

The narrow passages were filled with sailors in an instant. It took only seconds before they were spotted by several sailors. Lance took a deep breath, trying to focus. There was shouting, a lot of shouting. Pidge was tapping his arm. Lance was trying to focus, trying to tell them that they had better things to do than worry about a couple of stowaways, but not a single one of them were swayed. No mysterious fog descended over their eyes. None of their jaws went slack.

Instead, several pairs of hands grabbed at them and roughly dragged them up topside.

“Captain!” one of the sailors shouted. “We’ve got a problem!”

“Tell me something I don’t--” Iverson started, wheeling around and stopping short when he saw what his crew had discovered.

The majority of the crew was converged on one spot, but Lance couldn’t see why. Pidge was trying to peer through all the bodies to see what it was. In the midst of them all, Lance could see Keith. Beyond him, the intense rays of the setting sun. There wasn’t much time.

Meanwhile, Iverson looked ready to explode.

“I would’ve thought that you had the sense to leave such an important mission alone!” he shouted, speaking more to Pidge than to Lance. “We don’t have time for children’s games--!”

“None of us do! I know how important this is, that’s why we came!” Pidge shouted back.

Lance was still trying to see what was going on. He could see that some of the sailors were holding fast to a rope, but what it was attached to was just out of his sight. Keith was wearing a fierce expression, speaking to someone--but who?! If Lance could just lean a little to his left, then maybe he could catch a glimpse…

The sailors that held fast to him jerked him back just as Lance’s heart froze mid-beat. It had been the barest glance, but Lance would know those tails anywhere. How had they ended up here?! Lance decided it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting them free. Lance scanned his surroundings for something, anything. In front of him, Iverson was still locked in a shouting match with Pidge. On his belt he wore a large, practical knife. That would do.

Lance took a deep breath.

Then he pushed back on the sailors holding him as hard as he could. Before anyone could register what was happening, Lance jerked forward and snatched Iverson’s knife right out of its sheath. He sprinted as fast as his legs would take him. He must’ve looked especially wild, because no one dared stand in his way. Even Keith dove out of his way. There would be time for explanations later (hopefully). Lance raised the knife and brought it down on the taut rope as hard as he could. It cut through easily, and Allura and Hunk tumbled down into the water.

That, then, was one less thing for him to worry about. It was quickly replaced by another when Lance saw the fearful, angry expressions of the entire crew. Fearful humans were dangerous, his mind helpfully reminded him. They were yelling, all of them, saying how he had doomed them all, that they’d all meet their end at the bottom of the sea. Some of them had it in their heads that Lance would be better off overboard. Lance glanced at the choppy waves below. He wasn’t sure he was a good enough swimmer for that yet.

Just as it seemed Lance had to choose between throwing himself overboard or being forced, someone screamed, shrill and far more fearful than before. Everyone’s attention turned portside. A tentacle, followed shortly by several others, was creeping over the side.

Lance held the knife close as Lotor pulled himself on deck. The sun’s last rays were clinging desperately to the horizon, as if trying to give Lance a little more time.

“My dear, little princeling,” Lotor began as he advanced on Lance.

Lance held the knife in front of him. The sun was just about set, what in the seven seas could Lotor possibly want from him?!

“You’ve worn my patience down to its sinew. I would wait for the sunset to finish you, but I’m certain you’d only find more ways to agitate me in that time.”

Lance was all too aware of how quickly his breath was coming. His heart was beating so fast it felt numb. His fingers and toes were tingling. Was this the fear, or was Lance turning to seafoam already? Lotor kept on his steady advance, handsome features twisted into a fierce snarl.

“It seems, then, that I’ll just have to finish you myself!”

Lotor lunged at Lance with terrifying speed. Lance swung the knife, but too early; he sliced through empty air. Lotor grabbed his wrist with a tentacle and twisted until Lance was forced to drop the knife. Lance found himself dragged forward in spite of how he was digging his heels into the rough wood of the deck. Lotor’s hands were around his neck in an instant; Lance distantly noted that it was still tender from the near drowning the night before.

“Your silvertongue will be mine if I have to rip you to pieces to get it!” Lotor snarled as Lance kicked helplessly against him.

Meanwhile the knife had skittered across the deck, coming to a halt just at Keith’s feet. There was no question in Keith’s mind as he picked it up. Sure, Lance had secrets. He did things Keith couldn’t even begin to understand, but so desperately wanted to. Sometimes Lance looked like he wanted so badly to tell Keith something, but just couldn’t. Sometimes strange things occurred around Lance that were terribly dangerous, terribly suspicious.

Yet through it all he smiled at Keith like he put the stars in the sky. His enthusiasm had lit up Keith’s life in a way he hadn’t known possible. He sprinted towards the creature that was so insistent on ending Lance’s life. If he thought he was going to take Lance away from Keith so easily, he had another thing coming.

Just as Keith sank the knife near the base of one of Lotor’s tentacles, Lance had wrestled a hand free and grabbed at the cord around Lotor’s neck. Lotor screamed and threw Keith across the deck. Keith slammed hard into the railing; the knife went sailing into the water below. The sun had almost completely disappeared beneath the waves.

Some of the crew rushed forward to help their prince, distracting Lotor for the briefest instant. It was all Lance needed. He kicked Lotor right in his middle, the sensitive spot where skin met tentacles, and yanked as hard as he could on the cord. It snapped as Lotor doubled over. His grip on Lance loosened enough for him to pull free.

One last ray of sunshine nearly blinded Lance as he stumbled over, and smashed the shell with his hand against the deck.

Lance hardly had time to register the pain in his hand as a veritable gale threatened to rip the air from his lungs. His entire body felt like it had been flooded with ice, his legs felt like they were being stabbed with shards of broken glass. Through it all, he vaguely registered the taste of salt on his lips. Had he been too late? Had he turned to seafoam after all?

“Lance!”

Keith’s voice cut through the all the overwhelming noise like a beacon in the night. Lance whipped his head up, breathing hard. The sun had set. His hand was bleeding and his legs didn’t feel right. They felt like--

“He’s one of them!” one of the sailors screeched.

Lance didn’t care about them. Instead his eyes found Keith, whose eyes were fixed on the bright blue tail that had taken the place of Lance’s legs. His expression was unreadable. Was he confused? Shocked? Did he feel as though Lance had lied to him all along? Lance hoped not.

“Keith--” he started, and then gasped. Keith’s eyes widened further.

Lotor, meanwhile, had recovered and was positively livid. He dragged Lance back to him by the tail and coiled a tentacle around his throat.

“Rescinded bargain or no,” Lotor snarled. “It makes no difference to me!”

And then Lance was being dragged bodily towards the edge of the ship, where Lotor perched precariously on the edge. Lance resisted all the while, gasping and feeling utterly helpless. Lotor turned towards Keith with a smirk.

Without a word, he disappeared under the roiling waves with Lance in tow.

Keith waited for the space of a breath. Then he sprang into action, grabbing a harpoon and hoisting himself up onto the railing.

“Your Highness--!” Iverson protested fiercely over the shrieking winds.

Keith didn’t even spare him a glance as he dove into the waves after Lance.

“Damn fool of a prince is going to get himself killed,” Iverson growled. “Man the harpoons! Cast the nets! If you see anything that isn’t the prince, fire on sight!”

“Don’t, some of those merfolk are on our side!” Pidge shouted.

Iverson turned to them once more, and a second storm began to brew.

Below the surface, things were no more calm. The currents raged, not one of them following their usual paths. Allura and Hunk were struggling against Lotor’s mermaids again. Lance was still being dragged like a ragdoll behind Lotor.

“So, tell me princess, which part of your friend do I have to rip out of him to get what I want?” Lotor demanded. “Or will I have to kill him and find out for myself?!”

“Don’t!” Allura pleaded. “It’s not something you can take from him!”

“We’ll see about that,” Lotor sneered. To the mermaids he said, “Offer them up to the humans. I’m sure they’re more than eager by now to put their harpoons through merfolk tails.”

While Lotor talked, Lance searched for a way to get free. Brute force wasn’t working. Lotor had him well overpowered. He needed something to work with, a weapon, preferably something sharp. The ocean seemed to answer his pleas as a particularly fierce current brought the stolen knife back to him, settling in the silt just within Lance’s reach. Before Lotor could haul him away again, Lance sliced up on the tentacle that held fast around his neck.

Lotor roared as the end of his tentacle fell away. Zethrid reacted first, releasing Hunk to slam into Lance right where skin met scales. Lance’s nerves screamed with pain from the tips of his fingers to the ends of his fins. Behind Zethrid, Ezor and Narti were left to deal with Hunk, who seized the opportunity to break free of his captors. Acxa, distracted by Lotor’s injury, struggled to keep Allura in check.

“I may’ve failed in killing you before,” Zethrid cried victoriously as she pinned Lance to the ocean floor. “But I won’t fail again!”

Only as soon as the words left her lips a harpoon suddenly sprouted from her side. Her resulting gasp was small and frail, quite unlike anything Lance had heard from her before. The hands on Lance loosened enough for him to break free as Zethrid keeled over, hand grabbing weakly at the harpoon. Everyone looked up to see where the harpoon had come from.

Floating near the surface of the water, with a fire in his eyes that could not be quenched by the entire ocean was Keith. Keith, who was now conspicuously weaponless and vulnerable. Lotor, still reeling from his injury, bared his teeth viciously.

“Get him!” he commanded of the mermaids that could still swim.

Lance made to get there first, to swim Keith to safety and hopefully convince him to stay there, but just as he launched himself up, Lotor dragged him back down. Lance had to admit, he was getting really sick of Lotor throwing him around like this. He turned to scowl fiercely at Lotor’s furious expression while Allura and Hunk swam to help Keith.

“I will get that silvertongue from you, mark my words!” Lotor hissed.

“I get the feeling that if you need magic to get folks to listen to you, maybe you’re not worth listening to in the first place!” Lance spat, nearly sputtering over the feeling of his voice.

Lotor did not take kindly to that retort. “You don’t even know how to use it!”

“You don’t even know what it is!”

Instead of replying, Lotor grabbed the severed portion of his own tentacle and began speaking in a tongue that did not sound at all natural. The blood still oozing from the severed limb began to bubble and fizz. Above the water, lightning flashed dangerously, the thunder deafening even underwater. The severed limb seemed to dissolve into an eerie, glowing foam around Lotor’s hand, and when it cleared away he held a long, delicate knife in his fist, poised to strike.

Lance brought up his knife just in time to block Lotor’s strike. He flipped his tail and twirled out of Lotor’s reach. Lotor pursued him doggedly as the storm overhead raged on.

Said storm was a major inconvenience for Allura and Hunk, who were helping Keith stay above water where he could breathe while fighting off three mermaids at once. In addition they had to keep an eye on the humans on the ship, even as it was tossed around like a fragile toy. Already one harpoon had sailed dangerously close over their heads. Allura was fed up with it.

“Are your own people so daft that they can’t see we’re trying to help you?!” she demanded of Keith.

“They probably think I’m in danger!” Keith sputtered as another wave slapped him in the face. “Just stay close to me, if we’re lucky they’ll hit one of the other mermaids!”

“And if we’re not lucky?!” Hunk asked.

Keith didn’t immediately reply. “Let’s just hope we’re lucky.”

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Keith was yanked from their grasp and pulled underwater. Two harpoons loosed immediately, almost hitting their marks. Allura and Hunk wasted no time in diving back underwater after Keith. Narti and Ezor held fast to him even as he kicked and struggled, while Acxa darted towards Allura and Hunk with a harpoon in hand.

Hunk and Allura split, allowing her to speed right past them. Hunk swam to help Keith. Allura was left to deal with Acxa, weaponless and exhausted beyond belief. Allura didn’t want to have to kill her, but it seemed Acxa was intent on doing just that to her. Behind her, Hunk managed to wrestle Keith away from Narti and Ezor. Another harpoon shot through the water, slicing so narrowly past Narti as to leave a cut on her arm. She didn’t seem to react to it.

Acxa charged at Allura again with devastating speed. The tip of the harpoon caught the skin just above Allura’s torso, but she ignored the sting. Instead, she grabbed the staff of the harpoon and tried to wrest control of it from Acxa. In strength, it seemed, they were evenly matched.

Ezor and Narti were grabbing at Keith again while Hunk tried to bring him back up to the surface. Not far below, Lance and Lotor’s knives were locked together again, neither having a particular advantage over the other. It was an all around stalemate. Anyone could take the day.

It didn’t stay that way for long.

Lotor grabbed hold of the hand that Lance had cut open on shards of the shell that had trapped his voice. He swiped a thumb across the wound, speaking in the strange tongue of his once more. Lance tried to pull away, but Lotor had him in an iron grip. Lance didn’t want his blood boiling in his veins. Fortunately, that’s not what happened.

Unfortunately, Lotor’s palm began to glow with some mysterious force that Lance quickly decided he wanted nothing to do with. Lotor grinned as he swiped at Lance with his glowing hand. Lance barely managed to roll out of the way.

“Merfolk blood is such an effective ingredient in alchemy,” Lotor said. “Yet so tragically difficult to come by. I wonder if your blood will be any different from the blood I’ve used before!”

He thrust his hand towards Lance, issuing a blast of energy that struck Lance square in the chest. Lance struggled to breathe as he was sent careening through the water. Before he could recover, Lotor was on him again. He pinned Lance down with several tentacles. Lance realized in horror that he’d lost his knife. Lotor held his glowing hand aloft. His own knife was still grasped tightly in his other hand.

Before Lotor could deliver his blow, a harpoon shot just in front of him, leaving a long, thin cut across Lotor’s chest in its wake. Both Lotor and Lance looked to see where it had come from. It was Keith once again, this time supported by Hunk. Narti and Ezor were racing towards them. Lotor drew back his hand, attention solely on Keith and Hunk now. 

Just as his hand shot forward, Lance launched himself up and grabbed at Lotor, trying to stop Lotor. He was a second too late. An arc of energy shot through the water, but Lotor’s hand jerked wildly when Lance threw himself at him. The blast went right past Keith and Hunk and instead collided with Narti, whose form seemed to fizzle violently, and then dissolved into the water around them.

Ezor, who had not been far from Narti, looked horrified. Even Acxa, who was still wrestling with Allura, took pause at what had just transpired. Lotor spared just as much sentiment for Narti as he had for Zethrid; that was, none. Instead he turned his attention back to Lance. His hand was no longer glowing, but Lance had a feeling Lotor didn’t intend for it to stay that way as he raised his knife instead.

Allura looked from where Narti had been so callously dispatched to where Lance was in real trouble with Lotor. She was still in a stalemate with Acxa. She jerked against the harpoon between them as hard as she could, as she had done before. Only this time Allura whipped back as Acxa suddenly released the harpoon. Allura finally had the advantage. She did not, however, take it. Not as she looked at Acxa, who before had seemed so fierce, so dedicated, and saw a real, genuine fear. But not of Allura.

“Go,” she told Acxa.

Acxa’s eyes widened.

“Go!” Allura commanded.

Acxa, or at least her sense of self-preservation, didn’t need telling twice. She swam towards Ezor, who was still reeling over Narti’s destruction at Lotor’s hand and immediately swam for deeper waters. All that was left to deal with was Lotor. And, Allura mentally added as another harpoon plunged into the water, the humans above that were no doubt scared senseless.

Said humans could hardly keep a hold of themselves as wave after wave pummeled the ship. Several times now Pidge had nearly been swept right overboard, only to be caught by some helpful hand or other. If they were a better swimmer, they might’ve already joined Keith and the friendly merfolk. 

Meanwhile, Iverson was still refusing to listen to them. The sailors were jumpy and unable to see clearly. Pidge was certain that of the harpoons fired thus far, none of them had been at actual targets. They had to get out of this storm, but Iverson refused to leave without Keith. Noble as that was, Pidge knew he was in safe hands. Iverson believed otherwise.

So Pidge did what they did best. With no hands holding them back, they caused all manner of trouble on deck. They filched a knife off of one of the sailors and set to cutting away all the nets that could potentially tangle up their friends. Between the storm and the harpooners looking out for merfolk, no one took any notice of Pidge.

Next order of business: the harpoons. Shoddy as their aim was, there was always a chance that the sailors could hit their friends. Pidge was under no illusion that they could fight off every sailor that had a harpoon, but they could at least make things harder for them. First they cut loose all the spare harpoons overboard when no one else was looking and allowed them to tumble overboard. At the very least, it meant that the crew would run out of harpoons sooner than later.

All the sailors not on harpoon duty were running around like headless chickens trying to secure the sails. No one was watching where they were going. Even Pidge hadn’t spared a thought to it until the were running around the fore of the ship, and saw in a brief instant of illumination by lightning a massive outcropping of rocks. They swore to themself as they pounded across the deck to find Iverson.

“Captain!” they shouted over the storm.

On instinct, Iverson turned, but scowled when he saw Pidge.

“I don’t have time for your sabotage--”

“There’s rocks ahead! We’re going to crash!” Pidge interrupted.

Iverson halted momentarily, but then continued to shut Pidge down. Pidge had just about had it with him.

“Did it ever occur to you that my life is in just as much risk as anyone else’s on this boat?!” they hollered at the top of their lungs. “I don’t need to be a troublemaker when there’s already this much trouble going on! Now get this ship turned around before we all--”

A horrible, gut-wrenching crunch could be heard over the waves, and the ship jolted backwards. They were too late. Thankfully Iverson didn’t think to waste his time trying to exert his authority over Pidge again.

“Abandon ship! Make for land! I want at least one harpooner in each lifeboat! If you see the prince, get him to safety!”

He grabbed Pidge by the back of their shirt, throwing them on the first dinghy he saw. Several sailors clambered in after Pidge and immediately dropped it down to the water. They were almost instantly overwhelmed by the storm. Pidge scanned the waters for their friends. The harpooners were far more likely to hit a target they saw this close to the water, even in spite of the storm. Pidge could stop the one harpooner on their dinghy, but not all the others. They could only hope that their friends managed to stay safe.

Beneath the waves the currents ran wild. Were Keith not holding tight to Hunk, he very likely would’ve been swept away already. They’d resurfaced for a moment, and Hunk tried to put Keith up on the outcropping of rocks that the ship had just crashed against. Keith refused to stay.

“If you want me to stay you’ll have to keep me here yourself!” he shouted when Hunk pleaded with him to stay.

There must’ve been something in his tone that brooked no argument, because Hunk resignedly held out a hand. Keith took it, and together they dove back into the waves. 

Allura had gone after Lotor with a harpoon, but her aim had been way off and in her haste to keep Lotor from harming Lance she’d gotten herself tangled up in Lotor’s tentacles. Lotor turned his attention back to Lance, who was securely pinned down and rapidly tiring. Lotor took another swipe of the blood from Lance’s hand. He turned to Allura.

“Let’s try this again, shall we?”

Before he could try anything, however, Hunk and Keith charged, instantly overwhelming Lotor even with all his tentacles. He yelled incoherently, and instead of blasting Allura he aimed down, causing a cloud of silt and sand to erupt all around them. Lance felt hands grabbing for him as Lotor’s tentacles released him. He took them, trusting that they were hands of a friend and not foe, and shot up to the surface.

The hand in his was Keith’s, who coughed and gasped as soon as they reached the surface. Lance and Hunk helped him up onto the rocks so he could breathe a little easier. Beside them, Allura leaned against the rocks, utterly spent. The storm was howling furiously.

“Did we win?” Hunk asked tentatively.

“I doubt it,” Allura said. “Most likely Lotor intends to--”

But what she thought Lotor intended to do was lost as the ship crashed into the rocks at that very moment, the sound almost as overwhelming as thunder. They could only watch as the crew scrambled to abandon the rapidly sinking ship. Lance inhaled sharply.

“Pidge is still on that ship! We have to help them!”

“Lance, wait!” Keith shouted, grabbing hold of Lance’s wrist before he could go too far. “They still have harpoons! They could end up spearing you clean through, no matter what your intentions.”

“I can make them believe my intentions!” Lance insisted.

“It’s too dangerous!”

“They’re in danger too!”

“I know that!”

“Then let me help!”

“I can’t lose you, Lance!” Keith all but screamed. Lance finally stopped struggling against him. “I thought I lost you once--I can’t do that again!”

Their eyes locked, Lance’s on the verge of crumbling resolve and Keith’s on the brink of desperation. His mop of black hair was a sopping mess. Lance found him all the more handsome for it. Keith was holding Lance’s hand now, the injured one, gently drawing his fingers across the wound as though that alone could heal it.

Beside them, nearly forgotten, Hunk spoke, “We can do it. We can get everyone to land safely.”

“What?!” Keith and Lance snapped simultaneously.

“I know it’s dangerous, but they only got about one harpoon per dinghy, if that, and they’re more concerned about not capsizing. If we’re quick and careful, they’ll see that we’re helping them, right?” Hunk reasoned, voice trembling all the while.

Allura considered the idea. “If we start where Pidge is, that might make things easier. And if we bring Keith with us, they’re far less likely to fire. At least I hope they are.”

“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go!” Lance exclaimed. 

This time, Keith had no argument. He took Lance’s offered hand and held tight as they plowed through the stormy waters together, Allura and Hunk’s vivid tails acting like a beacon in the dark as they led the way. Lance tried to stay above the surface as much as he could for Keith’s sake, but the towering waves made that difficult to accomplish.

As they approached the group of lifeboats, several harpooners noticed the approaching mermaids and raised the harpoons in warning.

“Stay your hands!” Keith commanded as loudly as he could.

A harpoon flew overhead anyways.

“I said stay your hands!” Keith repeated, voice cracking under the strain. “They’re here to help!”

“Very persuasive,” Lance mumbled into Keith’s ear. Before Keith could retort, Lance continued, “Now, let’s get you into one of those boats!”

“No,” Keith refused, clinging tighter around Lance’s waist. “I’m not letting you go.”

“You won’t be! I just need to make sure you’re safe--!”

No sooner had those words left Lance’s lips than Keith slipped right out of his grasp and under the waves. Lance didn’t hesitate to follow him down. Lotor was waiting, tentacles curled around Keith and the knife to his throat. Lance halted. The threat was clear.

“Now, little princeling,” Lotor began, tapping the tip of the blade against Keith’s skin. “This has gone on long enough, hasn’t it? Give yourself up, and I’ll spare your darling human prince.”

It was a lie, Lance knew it, but what other option did he have? Keith was shaking his head as much as he could, but between the lack of air, Lotor’s hold on him, and the knife held against him, there was only so long he could last if Lance didn’t do as Lotor said. But Lotor would dispose of Keith anyways, if only for the sole purpose of breaking Lance. Lance couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t.

Lance’s posture went from resigned to resolved.

“No.”

Lotor actually looked surprised. “No? And here I thought you loved him!”

“I do,” Lance said. “But I’m not going to give myself up to you, and you’re not going to kill him!”

Lotor tossed his head back and laughed.

“You really think you can exert your will over me?!” he sneered. “I’ll give you one last chance--it’s all he has time for anyways--give yourself up, and I might let him live.”

The currents rushed past them as fierce as any gale.

“Let him go!” Lance commanded.

The thrum of the waves pounded in his head.

Lotor grinned maliciously.

A cacophony of thunder rumbled overhead, the sound shaking Lance to his very core.

“Very well,” Lotor said, poising his knife to strike. “His fate is thusly sealed.”

The surface of the water dipped dangerously low as the ocean prepared for a strike of its own. 

Allura and Hunk were in danger. 

Pidge and the other humans were in danger. 

Keith was in an incredible amount of immediate danger and Lance could feel his thoughts screaming, a sound that grated his nerves down to his bones until Lance could hardly stand it anymore.

Blue eyes met yellow in a flash of lightning.

“Stop!”

Above the water, Allura and Hunk didn’t realize that Keith and Lance had disappeared until it was too late. Even with Pidge trying to convince everyone that Allura and Hunk were on their side, several harpoons were raised and ready to strike. Allura and Hunk were certain they couldn’t dodge them all. Before the humans could strike, however, a massive wave threatened to swallow them all up. It was just as treacherous for Allura and Hunk as it was for any of the humans.

Thunder boomed. Lightning flashed.

Just as Hunk and Allura were bracing for impact, a shockwave rippled through the water. The wave that threatened to decimate them all collapsed instead of breaking over their heads. Above them, the storm stopped abruptly, clouds clearing away as though commanded.

In the fathoms below, the Lotor jolted back as though slapped in the face. Keith kicked free of Lotor’s hold and immediately swam to the surface for air. Lance couldn’t find the strength to follow. He was sinking down, all but the barest remnants of life sapped from him. At least Keith was safe, he thought as the edges of his vision darkened. At least Lotor had been stopped.

His vision sharpened once more as he was grabbed around his middle and slammed into the ground, his head hitting a rock hard. Lotor, consumed with wrath and practically feral, held Lance down with his tentacles as he held his knife aloft. Lance was helpless to stop him. He couldn’t even muster the strength to command Lotor to stop again. Lance closed his eyes, consciousness already fading as Lotor brought his blade down.

His last thought was that at least Keith was safe.

Lance didn’t see Lotor stop suddenly. Lance didn’t hear the grunt of agony that Lotor let out. He didn’t see the harpoon shoot through Lotor’s chest. He didn’t see as Lotor let the knife drop, hardly making a sound as his body slowly dissolved into sea foam.

Keith, swimming just above Lotor, saw it all. When his harpoon found its mark, he swam down through the newly formed foam to grab Lance. He knew Lance couldn’t drown, that it was impossible, but Keith wanted to make sure he was okay without having to worry about drowning himself. It was a struggle, hauling Lance up to the surface, but Keith managed.

“Lance!” Keith gasped as soon as he could. Lance didn’t respond; his head lolled to one side.

Keith grunted as he scrambled to get them both up on the nearest rock. Lance was dead weight all the while. Keith didn’t realize his hands were shaking until he was on his knees, bent over Lance and turning his face towards him.

“Lance,” he repeated, pleading. “Lance, please wake up, I told you I can’t lose you again, please.”

“Lance!” Allura and Hunk shouted, swimming up towards them.

“What happened?!” Allura demanded.

“I don’t know! One moment I was trapped and about to be killed, and then Lance told--no, commanded him to stop… and he did,” Keith explained. “I came up for air and grabbed a harpoon that had washed up against the rocks, and when I went back down, Lance was pinned down and unconscious.”

“The silvertongue,” Allura immediately said.

Keith was perplexed. “The what?”

“A gift of magic that Lance was born with, but never really had any control over. It was what Lotor wanted from Lance in the first place,” Hunk replied.

“I never thought it could be so powerful as to stop a storm,” Allura added.

Indeed, the clouds overhead had cleared away, revealing a sky bespeckled with a few stars and illuminated by the full moon. Keith couldn’t be bothered with any of that. His attention was focused solely on Lance, breathing shallowly and still unresponsive. The lifeboats drifted over, wary of the merfolk but worried for their prince.

“Is he going to be okay? This gift of his, it doesn’t hurt him normally, does it?” Keith asked.

“I--I don’t know,” Allura admitted. “Information about the silvertongue is scarce as it is, and while I’ve become something of an expert on it in the last two days, I’ve never heard of it used on this scale before. It’s possible he just overexerted himself.”

Allura did not articulate what the other possibilities might be.

Keith turned his attention back to Lance, tracing his thumb over the swell of Lance’s cheek.

“Please, please, open your eyes, tell me you’re okay,” Keith whispered, so softly that his voice was lost among the sound of the waves.

He rested his forehead against Lance’s, exhausted both physically and emotionally. Around them, everyone else was quiet. The only sound was that of the waves, gentle now, as though repentant for their earlier behavior. The wind had calmed to a breeze, softly shushing through the air. And then, faintly, a hum so quiet that even Keith missed it. He did not miss what came next.

“Keith?”

“Lance!” Keith gasped, moving to hold Lance’s face in his hands.

Lance chuckled. “This is a nice change of pace, isn’t it?”

When Keith looked confused, Lance continued, “Usually it’s me waiting for you to come to, isn’t it?”

Keith snorted, and began to laugh in earnest. “I suppose it is.”

“Your Highness!” Iverson called as the lifeboats drifted closer towards the rock they were perched on. He did not look happy.

Keith rolled his eyes. He couldn’t have one moment of peace, could he?

“Give me a minute,” Keith said to Lance. Lance nodded, letting his eyes flutter shut again as Allura and Hunk moved to see if he was alright.

Keith stood to face Iverson and the whole crew.

“What happened here was the direct result of the actions of a few, not the many. The same thing happens among humans. The merfolk you see here have saved my life multiple times between them, and they would do the same for any of you. They are not our enemies, nor should they be,” Keith said, almost beseechingly. 

The sailors shuffled uncertainly among themselves, but none moved to immediately attack the merfolk. That was a start, at least. Keith ordered them to head back to shore, and added that he would join them at his earliest convenience. Even Iverson didn’t argue. They went obediently, or perhaps they simply wanted to get as far away from the merfolk as possible. Pidge waved as they passed by, and even hopped out of the boat they were in to join them.

Keith sat down next to Lance as they went. Lance, still on his back, turned to Keith.

“So what now?”

Keith shrugged. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“Lance!” a voice shrieked in the distance, one that made Lance finally sit up.

“Oh, no…” he groaned.

“What? Who is it?” Keith asked, barely able to see the approaching figure even in the light of the full moon.

Before Lance could answer, a mermaid with a steely blue tail leapt out of the water and tackled Lance in a fierce hug. Lance hugged her back.

“Where have you been?! Everyone’s been worried sick, and I’m sorry I was so harsh but you really shouldn’t have taken it out on everyone but I should’ve listened better and--!”

The mermaid stopped when she saw Keith and Pidge, realizing for the first time that there were humans among them. She gasped and retreated into a defensive posture. Behind her, two more mermaids peered out of the water, holding weapons and ready to attack at a moment’s notice. Lance placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. She relaxed only marginally.

“Veronica, this is Pidge, the human I’ve been friends with for years, that told me about all the stuff I collected,” Lance introduced. “And this… this is Keith. The human I rescued from that shipwreck.”

“And from countless other things,” Keith added.

“Actually it was Hunk that rescued us in the lagoon the other night--” Lance caught his sister’s eye and stopped abruptly. “Er, right. Keith, Pidge, this is my eldest sister, Veronica.”

“That’s Princess Veronica to you,” she tacked on sharply.

“Princess?” Keith repeated, looking at Lance. “Then that means you’re--”

“A prince? Yeah, that’s me, prince of my own kingdom…” Lance chuckled, almost nervously.

Keith sighed, smiling. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll find something that--”

Beside Lance, Veronica cleared her throat pointedly. Her arms were crossed and her expression stern. Even Keith had to recoil slightly. She was a force to be reckoned with.

“As much fun as I’m sure you’re having, I’m going to need an explanation,” she demanded.

Everyone exchanged glances.

“Then I suggest you make yourself comfortable, cause it’s a long story,” Lance advised.

The story, beginning several days earlier and told from up to five different perspectives at once, took the greater part of the night. Lance began with his part, adding a brief soliloquy about his lifelong fascination with humans for Keith’s sake (“What does it matter?!” Veronica insisted. “It adds depth to my motivation!” Lance snapped back.), and stumbling over the parts where it was very clear that he was over the moon for the human at his side. Keith blushed deeply at those parts, smiling from sheer elation.

Between all of them, gaps were filled, new information shared, and other trivial things revealed (“You and Hunk were spying on us the whole time?!” Keith exclaimed. “Can you blame us, given the circumstances?” Hunk asked. Keith paused, and slowly said, “Fair.”).

There were markedly fewer stars in the sky when they finally finished, exhaustion finally catching up to them all. Even Veronica looked considerably fatigued.

“I should probably get back to shore before the crew thinks you’ve drowned me,” Keith said through a yawn.

Lance held out a hand, and without a word Keith took it. They slipped into the water together, Lance snaking an arm around Keith’s waist as they made their leisurely way towards the shore. Hunk offered to help Pidge back to shore, a help they gratefully accepted. The two of them, along with Allura, swam a ways behind Keith and Lance. Veronica, however, was not intent on giving them the luxury of privacy.

“You realize that one of you is human and the other is a merman, right?” she asked in her usual straightforward manner.

“No, it had completely escaped our notice, Veronica,” Lance snapped. “And in case you weren’t listening, I was human for a couple days.”

“Yeah, at the cost of your voice and leaving your whole family behind.”

“It wouldn’t be such a big deal if humans and merfolk could learn to coexist!”

Lance readied himself for the inevitable argument, the inevitable shutdown that always came. It never did. Instead, Veronica looked thoughtful. He knew he shouldn’t, but Lance allowed himself to hope.

“Perhaps you’re right,” Veronica sighed. “Lotor was only able to cause as much trouble as he did because of the disconnect between humans and merfolk. If it hadn’t been for you and your friends, it could’ve gotten much worse.”

Lance didn’t say anything. He held his breath, not daring to believe that this could possibly be real.

“If you’re looking to open up negotiations,” Keith began. “I know a prince or two that would be willing to listen.”

The sun rose on a fourth day that Lance hadn’t been certain he would have. Things seemed to move far too fast from there. He had to part with Keith and go home to assure the rest of his family that he was alive and well, but when they parted this time there was a promise that they would see each other once more, a promise that they could openly keep.

Shiro arrived not long after sunrise, having travelled as speedily over land as he could when he heard what happened. It was a bit jarring to be introduced to not one, but several merfolk. Not only that, but according to Keith they were to open up negotiations with the merfolk so that they could all live in peace--relieving as it was, it was a bit much to take in at once.

Once the date of negotiations was set, the merfolk left. Lance lingered a little longer than the others, whispering promises of a reunion. When he finally left, Keith stood at the shore for a moment longer than necessary, his heart already longing. Shiro came up behind him, setting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Together they turned back to the humans that had gathered along the shore to see what was going on. There was work to be done.

The work was tedious on both ends, full explaining and re-explaining. Lance was all too aware that he could speed things along, especially as he practiced his silvertongue on willing participants and gained a tentative mastery of it, but the idea of forcing his will over someone still didn’t sit right with him. Better to genuinely convince people, even if it meant that it would be that much longer before he could see Keith again. Besides, he had another use in mind for his newly rediscovered and immensely powerful magic, that worked for more than just swaying people to his desires.

The sun rose and set over the various kingdoms. Days melted into weeks, and then into months. Keith had never been especially patient, and the days wore on his nerves. He escaped down to the shore whenever he could, hoping that Lance was just as impatient to see him again. If he was, they never crossed paths. Keith remained steadfast, and when the sun dawned on the day that would signal the beginning of negotiations, his nerves were buzzing with excitement.

“You excited?” Adam teased as they made their way down to the beach.

“What do you think?” Keith huffed as he felt his cheeks grow hot.

“I think you’re going to pass out if you don’t breathe,” Shiro joined in. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll be just as excited to see you as you are him.”

Keith could only nod. If he jumped eagerly every time a merfolk poked their head above the water, no one pointed it out. The human delegation stepped into the shallow waters to meet the delegation. There was Veronica, and Allura, and a couple other merfolk that Keith didn’t recognize. Thus far, no Lance. Keith forced himself to breathe. Lance had made him wait before but had always come back. Keith had no reason to believe it would be any different today.

And yet as negotiations began and Lance was still conspicuously absent, Keith found himself utterly unable to focus on what was being discussed. The merfolk had some qualms about human fishing methods, which usually tended to harm merfolk, and humans were always afraid that merfolk would drown them for the fun of it. Something along those lines. Farther out in the waters, Keith noticed the waves becoming particularly rough. The skies, however, were perfectly clear, and the wind was not nearly fierce enough to warrant such an occurrence.

Still, nothing came of it, so Keith had no choice but to participate in negotiations, which went surprisingly well in spite of the years of distrust that lingered between the two peoples. Even so, they took the greater part of the day. The sun was setting as they were wrapping up, deciding on how best to seal the deal. By then, Keith found himself unable to mask his disappointment. He wanted the formalities to be done with so he could ask Veronica when he could see Lance again.

“Perhaps a marriage,” Veronica suggested, snapping Keith out of his sullen thoughts.

“A marriage?” Shiro sputtered, just as confused and alarmed as Keith. “Well, I’m already married, but my younger brother--”

“No,” Keith cut in.

Everyone present gaped at his outright refusal. Keith looked away, not wanting to explain himself.

“Keith,” Shiro reprimanded gently.

Keith huffed. He didn’t have to accept, he knew, but he did have to at least hear them out.

“As I was saying,” Veronica continued. “As it happens, we have the means to allow one of our own to live among humans, as you know we’ve done before. We believe that, since we have this option, it would make an excellent show of good faith in the contracts drawn up today to have one of ours marry one of yours.”

Shiro looked to Keith, who was still silent. Keith uncrossed his arms. He had to at least try to appear unaffected. And he had to hear out the idea. The entire idea.

“Who do you have in mind?” Keith asked as evenly as he could manage.

“I would’ve thought that would be obvious by now,” a new voice broke in, one that was almost unfamiliar to Keith.

Everyone turned in interest. There, walking towards the human delegation on his own two legs, was Lance, smiling brightly with open arms. Keith dropped all pretense of decorum without a care. He sprinted towards Lance with wild abandon, nearly sending them tumbling down when they finally collided. He wrapped Lance in a crushing hug and spun him around, revelling in the sound of Lance’s laughter.

“How?!” Keith sputtered. “You didn’t make a deal with a sea witch again, did you?”

“No!” Lance laughed. “You forget that I have a magic of my own.”

“But--the silvertongue--I thought--”

“It’s more than just commanding people to do what you want. Remember how I stopped the storm all that time ago?” Lance asked.

Keith nodded.

“It turns out that the silvertongue gift is literally--it’s just like--” Lance attempted, tripping over his own words.

“It’s like an extension of the ocean itself,” Allura added from where she sat in the shallow waters. “It’s most often been used to sway people's opinions, particularly those humans that merfolk have wanted to drown in the past. But in studying the gift extensively these past few months, we discovered that just about anything can be commanded by the sway of the ocean. Even Lance’s own body.”

Keith turned back to Lance, who was still grinning. “Took me this long to actually make it work though.”

“It was worth the wait,” Keith assured him.

“So,” Veronica cut in sternly. “I take it your opinion on the idea has changed then?”

The members of both delegations looked expectantly at the two of them, wrapped up in each other as they were. Keith looked back into Lance’s eyes, the only ocean he could possibly drown in now. Has his opinion changed on the idea of spending the rest of his life with the man in his arms?

“It has,” Keith said without looking away from Lance.

The delegations seemed pleased, and left the two of them to it. Keith trusted Shiro to handle the details.

“I don’t know if I’m convinced,” Lance said, his voice lilting. “Marriage is a pretty big deal, after all.”

“Oh? Then I’ll just have to change your mind,” Keith insisted, the space between them growing ever smaller.

“I suppose you will,” Lance whispered into the scant space left.

As the last of the setting sun’s rays shined upon them, their lips met each other as the shore met sea: gently, but with inevitable certainty, and tasting of sea salt. Keith and Lance smiled into the kiss, pressing their foreheads together when they found themselves smiling too much to keep kissing.

It was the perfect start to their happily ever after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's another fic done. Thanks to everyone who came along for the ride, and most especially thanks to everyone who commented, I love you and I would die for you. I hope you all enjoyed this little mermaid au!


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